Another federal district judge has attempted to halt President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts, ruling late Wednesday that the president’s Jan. 20 executive order declaring an invasion at the southern border and taking action to protect the states from an invasion is unlawful.
Judge Randolph Moss with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued two orders and a 128-page memorandum and opinion in a lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security by Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
The order partially granted the plaintiff’s request for summary judgment and vacated the president’s executive order “to the extent that it authorizes extra-statutory and extra-regulatory removals or repatriations of covered individuals; precludes the individual plaintiffs and class members from accessing their statutory rights to apply for asylum; precludes the individual plaintiffs and class members from applying for and, where appropriate, obtaining withholding of removal; and departs from the Convention Against Torture protection screening standards” established by federal agency regulations.
The judge ruled the president’s proclamation was unlawful because it “purports to suspend or restrict access to asylum, withholding of removal” or agency regulatory processes.
He also enjoined the order from being enforced, appearing to violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling restricting nationwide injunctions.
In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “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 at the Justice Department will fight this unconstitutional power grab as the president continues to secure our border.”
The president’s declaration states that he has constitutional authority to declare an invasion. Doing so is not contingent on a federal immigration law, The Center Square reported.
The president’s “inherent powers” to control U.S. borders, including executive branch authority to control foreign affairs, includes “the ability to prevent the physical entry of aliens involved in an invasion into the United States, and to rapidly repatriate them to an alternative location. Only through such measures can the President guarantee the right of each State to be protected against invasion,” the proclamation states.
“By the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I have determined that the current situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States,” the proclamation states. Trump issued it “based on my express and inherent powers in Article II of the Constitution of the United States, and in faithful execution of the immigration laws passed by the Congress, and suspending the physical entry of aliens involved in an invasion into the United States across the southern border until I determine that the invasion has concluded.”
While the INA authorizes the president to suspend entry into the U.S. when determining “the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” the president argues he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect U.S. sovereignty, “particularly in times of emergency … such as when there is an ongoing invasion into the States.”
Republican governors agree, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and many others, including former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, now DHS Secretary. Noem was the only governor in modern history to declare an invasion before a state legislature, The Center Square reported.
Arizona’s former attorney general also issued a formal opinion defining invasion, justifying Arizona’s right to self-defense under Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the US Constitution.
Additionally, the judges of 55 Texas counties were the first and only ones to declare an invasion, citing the same constitutional clauses Trump cited on his first day in office, The Center Square exclusively reported.
Judge Moss gave the administration two weeks to appeal, however, it’s expected to appeal much sooner than that.
