Page 3 - AT

A3
U.S. NEWS Monday 2 March 2020

$15

$85

Court halts Trump asylum policy, then suspends its own order

By ELLIOT SPAGAT The Justice Department the government significant
Associated Press said at least 25,000 asy- and irreparable harms —
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 9th lum seekers subject to the to border security, public
U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- policy are currently waiting safety, public health, and
peals panel voted unani- in Mexico and expressed diplomatic relations," Jus-
mously Friday to suspend "massive and irreparable tice Department attorneys
an order it issued earlier in national-security of public- wrote.
the day to block a central safety concerns." Customs and Border Pro-
pillar of the Trump admin- Government attorneys tection had already begun
istration's policy requiring said immigration lawyers to stop processing people
asylum seekers to wait in had begun demanding under the policy.
Mexico while their cases that asylum seekers be al- ACLU attorney Judy Rabi-
wind through U.S. courts. lowed in the United States, novitz called the suspen-
The three-judge panel told with one insisting that 1,000 sion of Friday's order "a
the government to file writ- people be allowed to enter temporary step." A father, in white, holds the hand of his daughter as they and
ten arguments by the end at one location. "We will continue working other asylum seekers leave court under guard after some of
of Monday and for the "The Court's reinstatement to permanently end this un- them learned that they won't have to return to Mexico in light of
plaintiffs to respond by the of the injunction causes the speakably cruel policy," she a major federal court ruling against the Trump administration on
end of Tuesday. United States public and said. q Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in El Paso, Texas. Associated Press