Judge blocks Trump program forcing asylum seekers to stay in Mexico

(Image credit: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images)

published 8 April 2019

A federal judge on Monday issued an injunction against the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols policy, which keeps asylum seekers in Mexico while they wait for their cases to go through the immigration court system.

Under the law, migrants have the right to seek asylum once they reach U.S. soil; typically, they are housed in detention facilities or released into the United States. President Trump has claimed that many migrants are crossing the border and lying about needing asylum, knowing there isn't room at migrant detention centers and hoping they will be set free to live wherever they want in the U.S.

The Trump administration enacted its policy in January, with outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen saying last week she would expand the program. In his ruling blocking the policy, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco said his order will go into effect on April 12, and the administration won't be able to implement or expand the policy, The Washington Post reports.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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