Trump foiled again at the border as federal judge halts White House ban on asylum claims

In the latest blow to President Donald Trump’s attempted immigration crackdown, a federal judge has temporarily banned the White House from enforcing its block on asylum claims at the southern border of the United States.

In a ruling late Monday night, Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order against Trump’s previous proclamation that only immigrants who entered the U.S. at a specifically designated port of entry would be considered for asylum. The order will remain in effect until Dec. 19, when the court will begin to hear arguments in service of making the restraining order permanent. On Tuesday, the Trump administration called Tigar’s ruling “absurd.”


The president’s decision, which was carried out by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Homeland Security, came amid a swirling pre-midterms propaganda campaign during which Trump and other prominent Republicans sought to portray an approaching caravan of South American migrants as “an invasion” and a dire threat to national security.