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A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to prevent migrants crossing the border from seeking asylum or applying for withholding of removal in the U.S., a major blow to Trump as he looks to further enforce his broad immigration crackdown.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss, an Obama appointee, said Wednesday that Trump’s Jan. 20 proclamation, which sought to block all migrants “engaged in the invasion across the southern border” from claiming asylum or seeking withholding of removal, exceeds his authority — siding with a group of 13 asylum-seekers and immigrants rights groups who sued over the proclamation earlier this year.
The group urged the court in February to block Trump’s proclamation from taking force, arguing that the action was “as unlawful as it is unprecedented.”
Moss, who heard arguments in the case in April, appeared to agree. Trump, he said in his order, “lacks the inherent constitutional authority” to supplant federal statutes governing removals.
JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA
President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“To hold otherwise would render much, if not most, of the INA simply optional,” the judge said.
Moss elaborated further in the 128-page opinion, saying neither the U.S. Constitution nor the Immigration and Nationality Act grant Trump the authority to “replace the comprehensive rules and procedures set forth in the INA and the governing regulations.”
“The Court recognizes that the Executive Branch faces enormous challenges in preventing and deterring unlawful entry into the United States and in adjudicating the overwhelming backlog of asylum claims of those who have entered the country,” Moss said in his order.
“But the INA, by its terms, provides the sole and exclusive means for removing people already present in the country, and, as the Department of Justice correctly concluded less than nine months ago, neither § 1182(f) nor § 1185(a) provides the President with the unilateral authority to limit the rights of aliens present in the United States to apply for asylum.”
JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA
A split photo of president Donald Trump and protesters demonstrating against Trump’s immigration policies. (Getty Images)
Moss stayed the order for a 14-day period to allow the Trump administration to seek emergency relief and appeal the case to a higher court.
The judge also granted plaintiffs’ request to certify a class of migrants who would were either subject to the proclamation or would be in the future, which he said would not be affected by last week’s Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Casa, which limited the scope of injunctive relief courts can provide.
The decision was blasted by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who described Moss as a “marxist” judge in a post on X.
“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 said.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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The news comes as Trump has sought to prioritize hard-line immigration policies in his second presidential term. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments earlier this year over another order Trump signed, which seeks to end birthright citizenship in the U.S.
The administration has also cracked down on deportations, invoking a 1798 wartime immigration law to more quickly send hundreds of migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador earlier this year.