"Congress enacted the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to grant all foreigners present in the US the right to apply for asylum and have their individual cases reviewed", the Federal Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit stated in its ruling on 24/4.
Accordingly, the appeals court judges upheld a lower court's decision that US President Donald Trump exceeded his legal authority when prohibiting migrants who crossed the US-Mexico border unlawfully from applying for asylum.
J. Michelle Childs, one of the three judges on the court, argued that the INA allows the president to issue executive decisions suspending entry into the US, but "Congress did not intend to grant the executive branch broad deportation powers as they are claiming".
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Undocumented migrants in the California border region, US, on 4/6/2024. *Photo: AFP*
Judge Cornelia Pillard concurred with Childs. Meanwhile, Judge Justin Walker, appointed by Trump, agreed with the conclusion that the executive branch cannot strip migrants of their right to access procedures protecting them from deportation to countries where they might face persecution or torture. However, he contended that refusing all asylum applications falls within the president's legal authority.
The Trump administration has not yet commented on the ruling. However, they could request the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the decision or appeal to the Supreme Court.
In 1/2025, Trump signed an order prohibiting undocumented immigrants entering the US from applying for asylum at the Mexican border. Immigration and asylum seeker advocacy groups subsequently filed lawsuits. A lower court ruled last year that this ban violated the INA.
Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the US. Since returning to the White House in 1/2025, he has accelerated deportation processes and reduced the number of border crossings into the US. Some of his mass deportation efforts have been blocked or delayed by courts due to concerns that migrants' rights to due process were being ignored.
Thanh Tam (According to AFP, CBS News)
