Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown has been hit with a severe blow as U.S. border agents are instructed to stop deporting migrants under the president’s sweeping asylum ban, according to a report.
An internal directive was put in place after a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that the Trump asylum ban went too far by cutting off key humanitarian protections, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News.
The appeals court made its limited ruling after a lower court declared that President Trump exceeded his executive power with a proclamation blocking all migrants who enter the U.S. from the Mexican border from claiming asylum.
Officials at Customs and Border Protection have been ordered to stop deportations under the asylum ban and to start processing migrants under U.S. immigration law, CBS reported.
For months, CBP had been using Trump’s asylum ban, severe on his first day back in the White House, to send migrants either back to Mexico, their home nation, or another country willing to take them.
CBP has now been told it must process migrants under U.S. asylum and immigration laws, which allow people to seek legal protection if they may face torture in their home country, and to request humanitarian refuge if they are on U.S. soil.
The Trump administration has backed its policy. It claims the move to deporting migrants without allowing them to request asylum was the reason for the steep drop in illegal crossings at the southern border. Border Patrol agents reported that just over 6,000 people were arrested in June for illegally trying to enter the U.S.
The Trump administration has vowed to appeal Friday’s court order and could now take the case to the Supreme Court.
In a statement to CBS News, CBP said the appeals court ruling affirmed “the president’s authority to deny asylum to aliens participating in an invasion into the United States,” and that the administration is “committed to ensuring that aliens illegally entering the United States face consequences for their criminal actions.”
“This includes prosecution to the fullest extent of the law and rapid removal from the United States,” the statement added. “CBP will continue to process illegal/inadmissible aliens consistent with law, including mandatory detention and expedited removal.”
The CBP and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from the Daily Beast.
