A federal appeals court has decided to block the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" plan in two states along the U.S. border, following back-and-forth rulings over the program.
In its order late Wednesday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that next week the administration will have to stop making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for the U.S. to process their claims, but that the court ban applies only to areas in its jurisdiction, Arizona and California.
The decision comes less than a week after the appeals court briefly blocked the program, then
quickly suspended that order.
On Wednesday, the court said it remains "very clear" that a lower court was correct in ruling that the Trump administration program — technically called the
Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP — may violate the law. "It is equally clear," the court added, "that the MPP is causing extreme and irreversible harm to plaintiffs," many of whom are asylum-seekers themselves.
Judges were not certain, however, about the scope of their injunction. Because such a legal question is "a matter of intense and active controversy," they said, the program can continue in regions "outside the geographical boundaries of the Ninth Circuit."
