A US appeals court has blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that suspended asylum access, a key part of his plan to tighten migration rules at the US southern border.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that immigration laws allow people to apply for asylum at the border, and the president does not have the authority to bypass that process.
The panel said the Immigration and Nationality Act does not allow the President to remove plaintiffs using “procedures of his own making” or suspend their right to seek asylum, or limit the process for hearing anti-torture claims.“The proclamation’s power to temporarily suspend the entry of specified alien persons into the United States does not include inherent authority to override the INA’s mandatory process for summarily removing alien persons,” Judge J. Mitchell Childs, nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, wrote, as quoted by AP.ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt welcomed the decision, saying, “It is necessary for those fleeing danger to be denied even a hearing to present asylum claims under the Trump administration’s unlawful and inhumane executive order.”Trump’s nominee, Judge Justin Walker, issued a partial dissent. Judge Cornelia Pillard, nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, also heard the case.
