Judge Restores Nationwide Block of New Asylum Rule

Maria Dinzeo, CNS, Sept. 9, 2019

"Citing the need to “maintain uniform immigration policy,” a federal judge on Monday restored a nationwide block of a Justice Department rule that makes asylum seekers ineligible for refugee status unless they applied for and were denied asylum in Mexico or another country passed en route to the United States.

“The court recognized there is grave danger facing asylum seekers along the entire stretch of the southern border,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said of the ruling Monday.

Gelernt had argued on behalf of immigration activist groups at a hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar, who say they are irreparably harmed by having to divert resources from asylum programs to defend deportation cases. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Al Otro Lado, Innovation Law Lab and Central American Resource Center sued the Trump administration to block the asylum rule, enacted July 16.

“The need to provide complete relief to the plaintiffs, standing alone, is sufficient reason for the re-issuance of the nationwide injunction,” Tigar wrote, granting their emergency motion to restore the injunction."