Justice Department lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar to immediately suspend his Nov.19 ruling that conflicted with President Trump's efforts to disqualify thousands of immigrants from seeking asylum in the United States.
The lawyers called Tigar's temporary restraining order "legally flawed, jeopardizes important national interests and interferes with the government’s plan to address a major crisis at the border."
Tigar’s ruling said Trump’s asylum order ignored a decades-old federal law that allows any foreigner “who is physically present in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of entry)” to apply for asylum.
Trump’s order would prevent undocumented immigrants at the Mexican border from seeking asylum if they enter the U.S. illegally, without presenting themselves at a designated port of entry.
The Justice Department gave Tigar a short deadline: Grant a stay by Wednesday, or the administration will file the same request with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Photo: Getty Images