SANFRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge in San Francisco on Wednesday stopped the Trump administration from enforcing a new rule that would bar almost all asylum applications at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Judge Jon Tigar in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rule, enacted on July 16, that would require asylum-seekers to first pursue safe haven in a third country through which they had travelled on their way to the United States.
A different U.S. judge had allowed the new rule to go forward earlier on Wednesday in a separate lawsuit in Washington.
The ruling by Tigar, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, renders inconsequential the decision by the Washington-based judge, Timothy Kelly, appointed by President Donald Trump.
The rule will now be suspended pending further proceedings.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Sonya Hepinstall)
