A Californian federal judge not only renewed his decision to block asylum restrictions imposed by President Trump, but also extended his sentence nationwide to safeguard the right of vulnerable immigrants to shelter.
The court’s decision, presented for the second time, freezes the effects of restrictions imposed by the Trump administration last July, which according to civil rights advocates, seek to keep the majority of Central American applicants out of the system.
The U.S. government issued a statement in which it described the decision to be “a gift for human traffickers” and “undermine the rule of law,” and assured that immigration and border security policies “cannot depend on a single district judge who decides to issue national blockades.”
Jon Tigar, of the courts of Oakland (California), reaffirmed in his initial decision and extended the ban nationwide, despite a 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals resolution that limited its effects to the Border States under his jurisdiction: California and Arizona.
Tigar pointed out in his ruling that “although national orders are not the general rule, they are appropriate when this extension is required to remedy the damages caused to plaintiffs”.
This means that Texas and New Mexico – the other two southern border states of the U.S. along with Arizona and California – will also have to apply it.
Despite having a lower “rank” than the court of appeals that had limited the effect of his earlier decision, the magistrate has been able to reaffirm his position because that court also determined that the case should be returned to Tigar.
The measure promoted by Trump in mid-July restricts the possibility of seeking asylum in the U.S. to migrants who have previously traveled through other countries, where they must direct their requests before going to the North American country.
Since most asylum seekers today are El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala citizens on their way to the U.S., they transit precisely through Guatemala and Mexico, thereby ending the possibility of claiming asylum in the United States.
“The Court has recognized that asylum seekers face serious dangers along the entire southern (U.S.) border,” said Lee Gelernt, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), after hearing Tigar’s decision.
Translated by: José Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
