A U.S. federal appeals court in San Francisco has blocked the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols policy, which called for sending asylum seekers back to Mexico to await their U.S. hearings. The measure, also known as the "Remain in Mexico" policy, went into effect in January 2019.
A U.S. federal appeals court in San Francisco blocked a Trump administration policy that has forced tens of thousands of migrants to wait in Mexico for months for hearings in U.S. immigration courts https://t.co/UOUAN3IZFA pic.twitter.com/kvKWNVHc24
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 28, 2020
Critics suggested that the Trump policy violated the international law known as non-refoulement, which prohibits asylum seekers having to return to the dangerous places they reportedly fled. The White House denied those claims.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a lower-court’s injunction against the policy.