A federal district court judge in the 9th Circuit on Monday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration's new policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico as they wait for an immigration court to hear their cases, but the order won't immediately go into effect.
The so-called "Remain in Mexico" policy was one of the primary innovations of former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whom President Trump announced on Sunday "will be leaving her position" after 16 months in the job.
Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco granted a request by civil liberties groups to halt the practice while their lawsuit moves forward. He put the decision on hold until Friday to give U.S. officials the chance to appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- which, thanks to Trump's aggressive judicial appointments, is now more friendly to conservatives than it has been in more than three decades.
The launch of the policy in January in San Diego at the nation's busiest border crossing marked an unprecedented change to the U.S. asylum system, government officials and asylum experts said. Families seeking asylum typically had been released in the U.S. with notices to appear in court -- and, conservatives have charged, they often can't be relied upon to show up.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of 11 asylum applicants and several other organizations, praised the ruling in a statement Monday.