Judge Blocks Trump’s Southern Border Asylum Crackdown

A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday delivered a major blow to former President Donald Trump’s border control strategy, ruling against his latest effort to limit asylum claims at the southern border.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss declared that Trump’s proposed restrictions exceeded presidential authority, asserting that neither the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) nor the U.S. Constitution provides the sweeping powers claimed in the policy.

“The Court recognizes that the Executive Branch faces enormous challenges,” Moss wrote, referring to border enforcement and the staggering asylum case backlog. “But the INA… provides the sole and exclusive means for removing people already present in the country.”

The policy, widely viewed as a cornerstone of Trump’s immigration stance heading into a possible 2024 comeback campaign, sought to deny asylum to most migrants entering through the southern border unless they had first applied for protection in another country en route to the U.S.

Critics called it a de facto asylum ban.

White House immigration hardliner Stephen Miller responded angrily to the ruling, calling Judge Moss “a Marxist” in a post on X. “To try to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions, a Marxist judge has declared that all potential FUTURE illegal aliens on foreign soil (eg a large portion of planet earth) are part of a protected global ‘class’ entitled to admission into the United States,” he wrote.

The ruling has not only reignited debate over the balance of executive power in immigration but also sets up a likely appeal — and possibly another Supreme Court showdown — as Trump and his allies push to reshape U.S. immigration policy from the courts.