A federal court in San Francisco made it harder Thursday for the U.S. government to quickly deport asylum-seekers if they fail an initial screening at the border.
A law passed by Congress in 1996 sharply limited the ability of asylum-seekers to access U.S. courts if they want to challenge decisions of an asylum officer and immigration judge.
Those limitations are unconstitutional, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.
Asylum-seekers are offered "meager procedural protections," and the law prevents "meaningful" judicial review of whether the Department of Homeland Security applied the proper legal standards in rejecting an asylum claim, wrote Judge A. Wallace Tashima for the unanimous court. "We think it obvious that the constitutional minimum ... is not satisfied by such a scheme."
The ruling could give thousands of asylum-seekers the right to seek review in the federal court system. Legal analysts say the decision is likely to be appealed by the Trump administration, which has changed policies on the border to try to discourage asylum-seekers.