The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to allow it to enforce its policy effectively prohibiting asylum for migrants who illegally cross the southern border.
In a filing with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Solicitor General Noel Francisco requested the justices put on hold an order from the U.S. district court in San Francisco, which blocks the administration from enforcing President Trump’s asylum policy.
Francisco called the injunction from the lower court “deeply flawed” and warned that leaving the order in place prohibits the Trump administration from addressing the “ongoing crisis at the southern border, with significant implications for ongoing diplomatic negotiations and foreign relations.”
The Trump administration issued its new policy Nov. 9, deeming migrants who fail to present themselves at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border ineligible for asylum. That’s a marked changed from prior asylum rules allowing those in the country to request to stay if they’ve reached U.S. soil in any way.
The new asylum order came as a caravan of thousands of migrants traveled from Honduras to the U.S., sparking calls from Trump for heightened security at the border and a renewed focus on immigration.
Trump’s order, however, was immediately challenged in federal court by immigrant-rights organizations, who sued to stop the policy from taking effect.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar, based in San Francisco, issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the asylum policy, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to lift the lower court’s order.
Tigar’s injunction prompted a swift rebuke from the president, who called him an “Obama judge” last month.
Trump’s characterization of Tigar subsequently led Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement rebuffing the president’s comments.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
