A federal judge on Wednesday halted President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown by blocking his executive order that sought to prevent migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. The order, issued on January 2, aimed to block asylum seekers from claiming protection under U.S. law, a move that has been criticized as an overreach of presidential authority. U.S. District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss, an Obama appointee, ruled that the executive proclamation exceeds Trump’s constitutional authority, siding with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit on behalf of several migrant groups and 13 asylum-seekers earlier this year.
The judge’s decision is a major setback for the Trump administration as it attempts to enforce its immigration policies, which were seen as part of a broader effort to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the U.S. The ACLU argued that the proclamation was