An attempt by President Trump to reject asylum claims to people crossing the southern border was ruled unlawful by a federal appeals court on Friday.
By Catholics for Catholics
A bid by President Trump to emphatically reject asylum claims to people crossing the southern border was ruled illegitimate by a federal appeals court on Friday. In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sustained an earlier ruling by a district court judge.
Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote that existing immigration law “does not allow the president to remove plaintiffs under summary removal procedures of his own making.”
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that immigration laws grant people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president can’t sidestep that, according to a story by Newsmax.
The Immigration and Nationality Act doesn’t permit the president to remove the plaintiffs under “procedures of his own making,” nor does it allow him to suspend plaintiffs’ right to apply for asylum or curtail procedures for adjudicating their anti-torture claims, the panel concluded.
“The power by proclamation to temporarily suspend the entry of specified foreign individuals into the United States does not contain implicit authority to override the INA’s mandatory process to summarily remove foreign individuals,” wrote Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated to the bench by Democrat President Joe Biden.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, Judge Justin Walker, a Trump nominee, disagreed. He said the law gives immigrants protections against removal to countries where they would be persecuted, but the administration can issue broad denials of asylum applications.
Nevertheless, Walker concurred with the majority that the president may not deport migrants to countries where they will be persecuted or strip them of needed procedures that protect against their removal.
Save and Share This Catholic Patriotic Minute!
