US appeals court deals partial setback to Trump rule to curtail asylum

FILE PHOTO: Central American migrants, returned from the US to Nuevo Laredo in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) to wait for their court hearing for asylum seekers, are seen arriving to Monterrey, Mexico July 31, 2019. [Reuters]

A US appeals court on Friday dealt a setback to the Trump administration attempt to bar almost all asylum applications at the US-Mexico border, but stopped short of applying its decision nationwide.

While ruling against a provision of President Donald Trump’s hard-line anti-immigration policy, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the decision would only apply to the nine Western states that make up the 9th Circuit. Only two of those nine, California and Arizona, are on the border with Mexico.