Judge Blocks Trump’s Order Barring Illegal Border-Crossers From Claiming Asylum

U.S. Judge Randolph Moss found that the Trump administration overstepped its authority and bypassed immigration law.

Illegal immigrants walk alongside the U.S.–Mexico border wall after crossing the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 1, 2024. John Moore/Getty Images

A federal judge on July 2 ruled against a Trump administration directive that blocked foreign nationals who cross the U.S.–Mexico border illegally from seeking asylum. The White House has touted historically low border crossings in recent weeks.

In an order issued on July 2, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss found that the Trump administration overstepped its authority and bypassed immigration law.

The president cannot “adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted,” Moss wrote in the order.

Soon after taking office in January, Trump declared that an invasion exists along the U.S.–Mexico border and that individuals who are seeking to cross are “engaged in the invasion” along the border.

“Many of these aliens unlawfully within the United States present significant threats to national security and public safety, committing vile and heinous acts against innocent Americans,” the Jan. 20 proclamation stated.

Some of these individuals are also “engaged in hostile activities, including espionage, economic espionage, and preparations for terror-related activities,” the proclamation stated. “Many have abused the generosity of the American people, and their presence in the United States has cost taxpayers billions of dollars at the Federal, State, and local levels.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups in February sought to challenge Trump’s asylum ban, arguing it violated U.S. laws and international treaties.

Moss ruled that neither the Immigration and Nationality Act nor the Constitution allows the president and administration officials to have the “sweeping authority” that was claimed in the Jan. 20 invasion proclamation.

In the order, the judge wrote: “Although the Court recognizes that the judiciary should not lightly intervene in the affairs of the Executive Branch and that implementing the immigration laws presents supreme challenges, the Court is unpersuaded that requiring Defendants to return to the processes that Congress required and that applied just a few months ago would cause Defendants irreparable harm.

“Although enjoining the President from exercising an exclusive constitutional prerogative might, standing alone, give rise to irreparable injury, requiring the Agency Defendants to comply with the law as Congress enacted ... would not.”

Since taking office, Trump has made border security a priority and has sought to deport significant numbers of illegal immigrants, although portions of his agenda have faced some legal setbacks.

The judge said he would stay the effective date of his order for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal.

Moss’s decision was criticized by Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller in a post on social media platform X soon after it was handed down. Miller said the order is an attempt to supersede last week’s Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions in a separate case.

“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,” Miller wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which encompasses U.S. immigration enforcement and border agencies, has said that border crossings are at an all time low.

Customs and Border Protection officials in June had the lowest number of apprehensions nationwide in the agency’s history, DHS said in a statement. About 25,000 illegal immigrants were arrested at the border, 12 percent fewer than the previous record set in February 2025, it said on July 2.

That figure is also 89 percent lower than the monthly average of apprehensions made between 2021 and 2024, under the prior administration, DHS said.

Reuters contributed to this report.