U.S. court invokes right to apply, blocks Trump’s order to suspend asylum applications

A U.S. appeals court has rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending asylum applications, a key component of his plan to tighten immigration rules at the U.S. southern border.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that immigration law allows people to apply for asylum at the border and that the president does not have the power to circumvent that process.The panel said the Immigration and Nationality Act does not allow the president to use “a process of his own making” to deport the plaintiffs, or suspend their right to seek asylum, or limit the process for hearing anti-torture claims.The Associated Press quoted Judge J Michelle Childs, nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, as saying: “The authority to temporarily suspend the entry of specific aliens into the United States through a proclamation does not include the implicit authority to overturn the mandatory process of the immigration agency’s immediate deportation of aliens.”American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Greant welcomed the decision, saying it is “critical for those fleeing danger who are even being denied hearings on their asylum claims under the Trump administration’s illegal and inhumane executive orders.”Trump nominee Judge Justin Walker issued part of the dissenting opinion. Judge Cornelia Pillard, nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, also heard the case.