Federal Judge Rules Trump Had No Authority to Shut Off Asylum at the Southern Border

On July 2, 2025, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled in RAICES v. Noem that President Trump's inauguration-day proclamation "Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion" exceeded his authority. Moss held that the president could not, under the immigration laws or the Constitution, deny noncitizens arriving at the southern border the right to request asylum, and he certified a nationwide class of everyone subject to the proclamation. He stayed his own order until July 16, 2025, to give the government time to comply or appeal. The administration appealed the same day to the D.C. Circuit.

The proclamation had been one of the administration's foundational immigration actions, treating border crossings as an "invasion" in order to switch off the statutory asylum process created by Congress. The ruling turned on the separation-of-powers question of whether a president may use emergency framing to suspend a statutory right, and it arrived days after the Supreme Court had curtailed universal injunctions - which is why the plaintiffs sought relief through class certification instead.

The order did not take effect during the stay period, and the case proceeded on appeal.