Update, 5:57 p.m. Monday: U.S. Attorneys representing the Trump administration filed an appeal of the judge's ruling this afternoon in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Original Post: A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration rule that bars most Central American asylum-seekers from seeking protection in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued a nationwide preliminary injunction halting the rule that would require most migrants to request asylum in another country first. Tigar’s decision came after four California-based immigrant advocate groups sued on the same day the rule went into effect last week.
In his decision, Tigar wrote that the so-called “Third Country” rule is inconsistent with existing U.S. asylum laws.
“While the public has a weighty interest in the efficient administration of the immigration laws at the border, it also has a substantial interest in ensuring that the statutes enacted by its representatives are not imperiled by executive fiat,” wrote Tigar.
Under the new policy, migrants become ineligible for asylum in the United States if they traveled through another country on their way to the U.S. but did not seek protections there first.
The Trump administration argued it needs the policy to curb the number of people making what it called meritless asylum claims, overwhelming border facilities and clogging immigration courts.
For migrants from Central America, Mexico would be a likely “third country” in which to seek safety from persecution. But Judge Tigar said the U.S. government failed to show that Mexico offers a full and fair procedure for deciding asylum claims.
“Rather, it affirmatively demonstrates that asylum claimants removed to Mexico are likely to be (1) exposed to violence and abuse from third parties and government officials; (2) denied their rights under Mexican and international law, and (3) wrongly returned to countries from which they fled persecution,” he wrote.
During the hearing, Tigar said he expected the losing party to appeal his decision.
The Trump administration argues it needs this new rule — and other recent immigration restrictions — to address what it calls a security and humanitarian crisis due to a surge in Central American migrants crossing the border.
Tigar's injunction was "against a lawful and necessary rule that discourages abuse of our asylum system," said the White House in a statement.
The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security have “broad discretionary authority” to implement the policy, according to Justice Department attorneys.
During a hearing in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday, Tigar pressed Justice Department lawyer Scott Stewart on whether it’s lawful for the government to require people to apply for protection in countries such as Guatemala, which lack an asylum process as robust as the U.S.
He said that while the government included information about the asylum process in Mexico in its court briefings, he couldn’t find a “scintilla of evidence” about the adequacy of the asylum system in Guatemala, which Salvadoran and Honduran migrants cross before reaching the U.S. border.
Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the groups suing, argued that the policy is “arbitrary and capricious,” and violates U.S. immigration law because protections “cannot be categorically denied based on an asylum-seeker's route to the United States.”
“If this rule were upheld it would essentially be the end of asylum at the southern border,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who argued the case before Judge Tigar.
The decision came hours after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, in Washington D.C., said he was allowing the “Third Country” asylum policy to stand on a separate legal challenge.
The White House applauded that decision in a statement as “a victory for Americans concerned about the crisis at our southern border. The court properly rejected the attempt of a few special interest groups to block a rule that discourages abuse of our asylum system.”
Between 2017 and 2018, asylum applications increased by nearly 70%, according to government figures. The majority of migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border are Central American families and children, and many say they are fleeing gang violence and poverty in their home countries, as well as government inaction to address these issues.
During the first eight months of this fiscal year, border authorities arrested nearly 525,000 non-Mexican migrants — nearly twice the number in the prior two years combined, according to government court filings.
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