Can't limit asylum protections

Trump admin can't limit asylum protections for domestic and gang violence victims, judge rules

By Dan Berman, Tammy Kupperman, Geneva Sands and Laura Jarrett

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration's policy that makes it difficult for victims fleeing domestic and gang violence to qualify for asylum in the United States and ruled that some people deported under the policy have to be returned.

In a rebuke of the policy established by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Judge Emmet Sullivan agreed with a group of women and children who argued the policy unlawfully imposed a heightened standard in reviewing their claims, concluding that the administration must stop deporting migrants currently in the US "without first providing credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws."

"It is the will of Congress -- not the whims of the Executive -- that determines the standard for expedited removal," wrote Sullivan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Earlier this year, Sessions said that in order to qualify for asylum, victims must show that their home country was unable or unwilling to assist them, and that "the government condoned the private actions."

The attorney general has full authority over the immigration courts -- a separate court system which operates under the Justice Department.

During a hearing on the issue in August, Sullivan erupted at the Justice Department when it was revealed that two of the plaintiffs were literally on a plane to El Salvador while the hearing was going on. Sullivan ordered the two immediately returned to the US and threatened to hold Sessions and others in contempt.