A United States federal judge ruled on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on asylum claims by migrants who cross the Mexico-U.S. border is unlawful, saying that the president exceeded his authority when he issued a “protection against invasion” proclamation on the first day of his second term.
U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss issued the ruling, but put a related order on hold for two weeks to give the Trump administration time to appeal. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the U.S. government would indeed appeal and expressed confidence it would win.
Moss, a district judge in Washington, D.C., invalidated the “Guaranteeing the States Protection against Invasion” proclamation Trump issued on Jan. 20.
In the proclamation, the U.S. president ordered a suspension on the entry to the United States of “aliens engaged in the invasion across the southern border” until he determines “the invasion has concluded.”
Trump also directed the secretary of homeland security to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States.”
The U.S. president said that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) “provides the President with certain emergency tools,” pointing out that it states that the president may “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of alien” if he deems that their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
However, in a 128-page written ruling, Moss said that neither the INA nor the U.S. Constitution grants the president the authority to “replace the comprehensive rules and procedures set forth in the INA and the governing regulations with an extra-statutory, extraregulatory regime for repatriating or removing individuals from the United States, without an opportunity to apply for asylum” or other humanitarian protections.
“… The Court recognizes that the Executive Branch faces enormous challenges in preventing and deterring unlawful entry into the United States and in adjudicating the overwhelming backlog of asylum claims of those who have entered the country. But the INA, by its terms, provides the sole and exclusive means for removing people already present in the country,” wrote the judge, an appointee of former U.S. president Barack Obama.
Moss also wrote that “the President cannot adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted.”
The Reuters news agency reported that “the decision applies to migrants who were subject to Trump’s ban or could be in the future, part of a certified class in the litigation.”
“Such class certifications remain unaffected by last week’s Supreme Court decision reining in nationwide injunctions,” Reuters said.
Moss’s ruling came in response to a challenge to Trump’s asylum ban brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of three advocacy groups as well as migrants who had been denied access to making an application for asylum in the United States.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit in February, at which time an attorney for the ACLU, Lee Gelernt, asserted that “no president has the authority to unilaterally override the protections Congress has afforded those fleeing danger.”
What does the ruling mean for migrants?
If its appeal is unsuccessful, the Trump administration will be barred from expelling asylum seekers already in the United States before their cases have been considered. In addition, the ruling “could reopen asylum processing on the southern border and enable migrants to cross into the United States in hopes of seeking refuge,” The Washington Post reported.
Gerlent, the ACLU attorney, welcomed Moss’s ruling.
“The decision means there will be protection for those fleeing horrific danger and that the president cannot ignore laws passed by Congress simply by claiming that asylum seekers are engaged in an invasion,” he said.
“… The importance of restoring asylum in the United States cannot be overstated, not only for the people whose lives are in danger but for our standing in the world,” Gerlent said.
In recent years, large numbers of migrants have traveled through Mexico en route to the United States. They typically enter the country via the southern border with Guatemala and then seek to make the perilous journey to the United States by any means possible, including walking, riding on freight trains and crowding into the cargo compartments of tractor-trailers.
While the majority of migrants seeking to reach the United States via Mexico come from Western Hemisphere countries, people from all over the world have made the journey. People from Afghanistan, Egypt and Turkey were among the migrants on whose behalf the ACLU filed the lawsuit against Trump’s proclamation.
The US government responds
Jackson, the White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that “a local district court judge has no authority to stop President Trump and the United States from securing our border from the flood of aliens trying to enter illegally.”
“This is an attack on our Constitution, the laws Congress enacted, and our national sovereignty. We expect to be vindicated on appeal,” she said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that “a rogue district court judge is already trying to circumvent the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against nationwide injunctions.”
“The American people see right through this. Our attorneys @thejusticedept will fight this unconstitutional power grab as @POTUS continues to secure our border,” she wrote.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was also highly critical of Moss’s ruling.
A rogue district court judge is already trying to circumvent the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against nationwide injunctions.
The American people see right through this. Our attorneys @thejusticedept will fight this unconstitutional power grab as @POTUS continues to secure our…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) July 2, 2025
“To try to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions a marxist judge has declared that all potential FUTURE illegal aliens on foreign soil (eg a large portion of planet earth) are part of a protected global ‘class’ entitled to admission into the United States,” he wrote.
Trump himself didn’t comment directly on the ruling, but said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday afternoon that “we still have Radical Left Judges trying to open the Border, and defy the Supreme Court, which is why Republicans must be smart, strong, and never let these Crazed Judges turn us into a Third World Country.”
Ruling coincides with publication of data showing record-low migrant crossings
Moss’s ruling against Trump’s Jan. 20 proclamation came the same day that the U.S. government reported that illegal immigration at the Mexico-U.S. border declined to a record low in June.
“Border Patrol encountered just 6,070 illegal immigrants at the southern border in June — another record-setting low (15% lower than the previous record set in March) that underscores the effectiveness of President Donald J. Trump’s robust border enforcement policies and aggressive deportation measures,” the White House said in a statement.
“It’s a stark contrast to the Biden Administration, when approximately 10,000 unvetted migrants were illegally crossing the southern border every day at the peak of the invasion — most of whom were released into the country with little or no oversight,” the White House said.
Tom Homan, the United States’ “border czar,” said on X that “none of the 6,070” people detected by Border Patrol in June “were released into the U.S.”
“… President Trump has created the most secure border in the history of the nation and the data proves it. We have never seen numbers this low. Never,” he wrote.
Migrant crossings at the Mexico-U.S. border began declining after former president Joe Biden issued an executive order in June 2024 that prevented migrants from making asylum claims at times when crossings between legal ports of entry surge.
Reuters reported that “key parts of the Biden ban were blocked by a separate federal judge in May in a lawsuit also led by the ACLU.”
The Mexican government has also made significant efforts to stop migrants from reaching the United States, including by deploying 10,000 troops to the northern border area in February.
With reports from Reuters, AP, CNN and The Washington Post
