Federal judge rules asylum seekers not at risk under ‘safe third country’ rule News
© Wikimedia (Gerald L. Nino, CBP, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security)
Federal judge rules asylum seekers not at risk under ‘safe third country’ rule

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of California on Monday denied a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a class action to stop the deportation of asylum seekers to a “safe third country.” The class includes those entering the country to seek asylum at a port of entry.

Under the “safe third country” provision, asylum seekers can be removed to other countries, like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where their life or freedom would not be threatened while their claim is processed in the US.

The court ruled that the plaintiffs had not established that the rule is likely to apply to their class, they must demonstrate a significant risk of irreparable injury in order to get a TRO. The plaintiffs claimed that “the Government is accelerating enforcement of the rule” and applied it to one person at a port of entry in El Paso. However that person was later reprocessed for different removal proceedings.

The court stated that the motion for a TRO can be resubmitted if there is evidence that the rule is applied or will imminently apply to a member of the class.

This comes after claims this week that some asylum seekers have been deported to Guatemala.

THIS DAY @ LAW

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On August 31, 1965, President Johnson signed a law making the burning of draft cards a federal offense subject to a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine. In response to the law and in protest of the war in Vietnam, the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States on October 15, 1965. The constitutionality of the federal law was upheld in 1968 by the US Supreme Court in US v. O'Brien.

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