Randy Moss Judge Randolph Moss. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.

The Trump administration’s new rule that would limit asylum claims on the southern border to immigrants who enter through a designated port of entry was vacated by a Washington federal judge Friday.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss found President Donald Trump’s rule is both contrary to national immigration laws and violates the Administrative Procedures Act. As such, Moss said he is required to vacate the rule instead of issue a national injunction as the plaintiffs, all migrants, requested.

Moss also rejected a request to only apply his ruling to the plaintiffs named in the case before him. Moss, in his 77-page order, questioned how he could vacate a rule for the named plaintiffs only, without vacating the rule as a whole.

“Fortunately, the court need not engage in such logistical gymnastics because the language of the APA and the controlling D.C. Circuit precedent are unambiguous,” Moss wrote. “The Court, accordingly, concludes that the proper remedy is to set the rule aside, and the legal consequences of that result are not limited ‘to the individual’ plaintiffs.”

Moss’ order marks a win for a team of attorneys from Hogan Lovells, Williams & Connolly, Human Rights First and the National Immigrant Justice Center.

Moss’ order comes nearly a week after a federal judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction blocking another Trump administration rule that barred asylum for migrants who failed to apply for protection in a country they transited through before reaching the United States. That policy was directed at stemming the tide of Central American migrants coming to the country through Mexico.

Judge Jon Tigar in the Northern District of California ruled on July 24 that the rule “is inconsistent with the existing asylum laws” passed by Congress.

Tigar’s decision ran counter to a decision issued earlier that day by a judge in Washington, D.C., who declined a similar request to block the new rule. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly of the District of Columbia issued a bench order denying a request for a temporary restraining order from the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, which are represented by a team from Hogan Lovells.

Moss’s ruling is posted below:

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