Appeals court rejects broad Trump administration bid to block asylum applications 

A federal appeals court on Friday rejected President Trump’s effort to ban migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border from seeking asylum, stating it ignored laws enacted by Congress.

“Congress enacted the asylum statute, with narrow exceptions specified by statute, to grant all foreign individuals ‘physically present’ in the United States a right to apply for asylum and have their individual applications adjudicated,” the judges said. “If the Government wishes to modify this carefully structured and intricate system, it must present those arguments to the only branch of government able to amend the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act]: Congress.”

The 2-1 decision effectively blocks a proclamation Trump signed on the first day of his second term, in which he argued that the number of foreign people attempting to cross the southern border was an “invasion” that prevented the federal government........

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