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Ruling Backs Asylum-seekers at Border Prior to Policy Shift

Associated Press

   SAN DIEGO - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a partial ban on asylum
   does not apply to anyone who appeared at an official U.S. border
   crossing before the policy was announced in July, a decision that may
   affect thousands of people.

   The Trump administration announced July 16 that it would deny asylum to
   anyone who traveled through another country without applying there
   first.

   Immigrants advocates went to court on behalf of the many migrants who
   heeded the recommendations of the U.S. government and showed up at
   official crossings earlier this year to request asylum, rather than
   cross the border illegally.

   The advocates said the administration engaged in an "immoral
   bait-and-switch" against those immigrants by imposing the ban.

   U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant ruled in their favor Tuesday,
   saying anyone who appeared at a U.S. border crossing with Mexico before
   July 16 would be exempt from the ban.

   "(These) asylum-seekers understood their access to asylum in the United
   States to be premised on their willingness to wait in Mexico," Bashant
   wrote. "In reliance on this representation by the U.S. Government, they
   did so. The Government -- in a shift that can be considered, at best,
   misleading, and at worst, duplicitous -- now seeks to change course."

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