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Ruling that blocks sending migrants to Mexico suspended

Justice Department says at least 25,000 people waiting in Mexico

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
Published: February 28, 2020, 10:59pm
6 Photos
A father, in white, holds the hand of his daughter as they and other asylum seekers leave court under guard after some of them learned that they won&#039;t have to return to Mexico in light of a major federal court ruling against the Trump administration on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in El Paso, Texas. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that sending asylum seekers to wait in Mexico is illegal nationwide. The ruling came during the asylum testimony of one family in the group being put into the van.
A father, in white, holds the hand of his daughter as they and other asylum seekers leave court under guard after some of them learned that they won't have to return to Mexico in light of a major federal court ruling against the Trump administration on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in El Paso, Texas. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that sending asylum seekers to wait in Mexico is illegal nationwide. The ruling came during the asylum testimony of one family in the group being put into the van. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio) Photo Gallery

SAN DIEGO — A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel voted unanimously Friday to suspend an order it issued earlier in the day to block a central pillar of the Trump administration’s policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. courts.

The three-judge panel told the government to file written arguments by the end of Monday and for the plaintiffs to respond by the end of Tuesday.

The Justice Department said at least 25,000 asylum-seekers subject to the policy are waiting in Mexico and expressed “massive and irreparable national-security of public-safety concerns.”

Government attorneys said immigration lawyers had begun demanding that asylum seekers be allowed in the United States, with one insisting that 1,000 people be allowed to enter at one location.

“The Court’s reinstatement of the injunction causes the United States public and the government significant and irreparable harms — to border security, public safety, public health, and diplomatic relations,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.

Customs and Border Protection had already begun to stop processing people under the policy.

The government’s setback earlier Friday from the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may prove temporary if President Donald Trump’s administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has consistently sided with Trump on immigration and border security policies. Chad Wolf, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said he was working with the Justice Department to “expeditiously appeal this inexplicable decision.”

The “Remain in Mexico” policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols,” took effect in January 2019 in San Diego and gradually spread across the southern border. About 60,000 people have been sent back to wait for hearings, and officials believe it is a big reason why illegal border crossings plummeted about 80 percent from a 13-year high in May.

Reaction to the decision blocking the policy was swift among immigration lawyers and advocates who have spent months fighting with the administration over a program they see as a humanitarian disaster, subjecting hundreds of migrants to violence, kidnapping and extortion in dangerous Mexican border cities. Hundreds more have been living in squalid encampments just across the border, as they wait for their next court date.

Advocates planned to have immigrants immediately cross the border and present the court decision to authorities Friday, with group Human Rights First hand-delivering a copy to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at a bridge connecting Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Lawyers were hoping to get their clients before U.S. immigration court judges.

The decision interrupted some court cases. Immigration Judge Philip Law in San Diego delayed a final hearing on a Honduran man’s asylum case to April 17 after a government attorney couldn’t answer his questions about the effect of the ruling, which temporarily halts the policy during legal challenges. The government attorney said she asked her supervisor how to address the ruling and that he didn’t know what to do, either.

The Justice Department sharply criticized the ruling, saying it “not only ignores the constitutional authority of Congress and the administration for a policy in effect for over a year, but also extends relief beyond the parties before the court.”

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