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by IANS |
San Francisco, Feb 29 (IANS) A US federal court has ruled that President Donald Trump administration must halt its 'Remain in Mexico' policy of requiring Central American asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico pending American approval.
The policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) which took effect in January 2019, requires migrants entering through the southern border to wait in Mexico as US immigration courts hear their cases, reports the BBC.
The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the MPP was "invalid in its entirety" due to its inconsistencies with existing laws.
The three-judge panel ruled that a block on the MPP, which was granted by a lower court, was "not an abuse of discretion".
In a separate decision, the court agreed to stop another major Trump administration policy denying asylum to anyone caught entering the US illegally from Mexico.
The numbers of migrants entering the US illegally has declined sharply in recent months.
In an October 2019 report, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called the 'Remain in Mexico' policy "an indispensible tool in addressing the ongoing crisis at the southern border and restoring integrity to the immigration system", the BBC reported.
It was unclear whether the decision meant migrants being held in Mexico would immediately be allowed to cross into the US.
The DHS has not commented on the development.
