White House rips federal judge for blocking stricter asylum laws

Team Trump on Thursday ripped a federal judge over his decision to stop the administration from enforcing a new rule that would bar almost all asylum applications at the Mexican border — decrying the action as “the tyranny of a dysfunctional system.”

“A single district judge in California, based on a complaint filed by a few activist groups with no legal standing, issued a nationwide injunction against a lawful and necessary rule that discourages abuse of our asylum system – and did so despite a ruling from another federal judge earlier in the day rejecting the same request by other plaintiffs and suggesting that the government was likely to prevail against challenges to the rule,” a White House statement said.

“The tyranny of a dysfunctional system that permits plaintiffs to forum shop in order to find a single district judge who will purport to dictate immigration policy to the entire Nation – even in the face of a contrary ruling by another Federal court – must come to an end.”

Judge Jon Tigar of the federal court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rule, enacted on July 16, that would require asylum-seekers to first pursue safe haven in a third country through which they had traveled on their way to the US.

A different judge had allowed the new rule to go forward earlier on Wednesday in a separate lawsuit in Washington.

The ruling by Tigar, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, renders inconsequential the decision by the Washington-based judge, Timothy Kelly, appointed by Trump.

The rule will now be suspended pending further proceedings, and the White House statement indicated it would appeal.

“We intend to pursue all available options to address this meritless ruling and to defend this Nation’s borders,” the statement concluded.

With Reuters

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