On Wednesday a Federal Judge struck down several Trump Administration policies aimed at making it more difficult for those fleeing domestic or gang-related violence to seek asylum in the U.S.
The New York Times explains that the policy in question “sought to limit the ability of immigrants to fight expedited deportation by narrowing the grounds for claiming “credible fear” if they returned home.”
In his ruling U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan writes that with the exception of two policies, “the new credible fear policies are arbitrary, capricious, and in violation of the immigration laws.”
Judge Sullivan explains that the policies are “inconsistent” with Congressional intent, and that they violate both the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act writing that, “because it is the will of Congress—not the whims of the Executive—that determines the standard for expedited removal, the Court finds that those policies are unlawful.”
Judge Sullivan also ruled that the U.S. Government has to bring back six deported migrants to reconsider their cases.
The case, which was first brought in August by The ACLU and the University of California’s Hastings Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, is not the first blow to the Trump Administrations Asylum policies, as the News Blender reported in November.
In the November ruling District Court Judge Jon S. Tigar issued a temporary restraining order barring the Administrations ability to deny illegal entry aliens the chance to apply for asylum. Judge Tigar wrote in the order, “Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.”
BuzzFeed News reported that shortly after Judge Sullivan’s ruling the Department of Justice “filed a motion to put his ruling on hold.”
BuzzFeed reporter Chris Geidner tweeted out the DOJ’s statement regarding the ruling.
DOJ on today’s “credible fear” ruling —> pic.twitter.com/yOLRdQu9pL
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) December 19, 2018
For What it’s Worth: Judge Emmet Sullivan is the Judge that oversaw the sentencing hearing of former President Trump National Security Adviser of Michael Flynn. The hearing resulted in a postponement until March, citing Flynn’s ongoing cooperation with open investigations.
