Judge Blocks Ban on Asylum-Seekers Who Travel through Safe Third Country

A federal judge in San Francisco restored a nationwide injunction on Monday preventing the Trump administration’s ban on asylum-seekers who travelled through a so-called safe third country before arriving in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued the ruling after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in August narrowed his previous nationwide injunction, allowing the Trump administration to implement the asylum-rule change in Texas and New Mexico but not in California or Arizona.

In response to an overwhelming surge in asylum-seekers arriving at the southern border, the administration announced in July that migrants who travel through a safe third country before arriving in the U.S. must apply for, and be denied, refugee status in that country before they can apply for asylum in the U.S.