Federal judge rules Trump's suspension of access to asylum on US southern border is unlawful

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump's executive order that suspended asylum applications at the southern border was unconstitutional.

Trump signed the executive order on his first day in office after declaring that the surge of illegal migrants sneaking into the United States constituted an invasion of the country, and was therefore suspending "physical entry" of migrants and an ability to seek asylum until the invasion was over.

The Trump administration has argued that the power to declare the invasion falls under the executive branch because it oversees U.S. foreign policy and immigration enforcement. 

Judge Randolph Moss ruled, however, that the Constitution and federal immigration law did not give the president the power he sought to "adopt an alternative immigration system," or “an extra-statutory, extra-regulatory regime for repatriating or removing individuals from the United States, without an opportunity to apply for asylum."

Moss also declared that the order would not go into effect for 14-days to give the Trump administration time to appeal.

The ruling is expected to impact a large portion of the president's immigration agenda, and comes after illegal border crossings plummeted in recent months. The White House announced that Border Patrol made 6,070 arrests in June, down 30% from May, per the Associated Press.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.