A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order barring asylum access to individuals crossing the southern border fleeing from persecution or torture.
The three-judge panel ruled President Trump’s effort illegal, stating that immigration laws grant people the right to apply for asylum at the border. The panel stated that President Trump’s proclamation cannot block asylum applications or deny access to withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
“The INA does not allow the President to remove Plaintiffs under summary removal procedures of his own making. Nor does it allow the Executive to suspend Plaintiffs’ right to apply for asylum, deny Plaintiffs’ access to withholding of removal under the INA, or curtail mandatory procedures for adjudicating Plaintiffs’ Convention Against Torture Claims,” Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote in the judicial opinion.
“Congress enacted the asylum statute, with narrow exceptions specified by statute, to grant all foreign individuals ‘physically present’ in the United States a right to apply for asylum and have their individual applications adjudicated,” the court said. “If the Government wishes to modify this carefully structured and intricate system, it must present those arguments to the only branch of government able to amend the INA: Congress.”
According to The Associated Press (AP), Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, issued a partial dissent, arguing that although the INA grants immigrants protections against removal to nations where they would be persecuted, the Trump administration still has the authority to issue broad denials of asylum applications.
Judge Walker, however, did agree with the majority, affirming that President Trump cannot deport migrants to countries where they can be persecuted. Walker also agreed that the Trump administration cannot prohibit migrants from the mandatory procedures that protect against their removal.
According to CNN, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Lee Gelernt, who represents the migrants at the center of the legal challenge, the court's ruling “will potentially save the lives of thousands of people fleeing grave danger who were denied even a hearing under the Trump administration’s horrific asylum ban.”
