On Monday, a U.S. District Court judge in northern California ruled against a policy that President Trump signed for people seeking asylum in the United States.

Judge Richard Seeborg ruled that President Trump’s “Wait-In-Mexico” policy which is officially known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols”, started this year as a way to deter migrants coming from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras from entering illegally.

The Washington Post reports,

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop its new policy of sending asylum-seekers who jumped the border back to Mexico to wait while their cases proceed, ruling Monday that the plan was likely illegal.

Known informally as the “wait-in-Mexico policy,” and officially as the Migrant Protection Protocols, the plan was a major part of the administration’s moves to try to stem the flow of immigrants crossing into the U.S. illegally.

Judge Richard Seeborg, an Obama appointee to the bench, said not only does the policy violate immigration law, but Mexico is so dangerous that making asylum-seekers wait there — even if they’re not from Mexico — is untenable.

Judge Seeborg said it may be possible to come up with a policy that would be legal, with sufficient safeguards, but the Trump administration’s version doesn’t cut it.

Though the plan has only started recently, the numbers from February of immigrants that were returned to Mexico were only 240 out of 76,000.

If the U.S. could get cooperation from Mexico, the plan would be much more effective, which is why the President has threatened to shut down the border entirely. But according to one DHS official, “We are starting small to see how this process works. Just to make sure that we have the coordination down with Mexico, and we have a process that works.”

According to The Daily Wire,

There is no formal agreement with the Mexican government concerning the Migrant Protection Protocols, according to DHS. But U.S. officials insist there is coordination between authorities in the two countries.

“We work very closely with the Mexican authorities,” a DHS official said. “We’re not going to open up a location that the Mexicans aren’t ready and able to process, and provide the humanitarian protections that they agreed to do.”

Trump told border agents to break U.S. law and defy judicial orders https://t.co/Mq2yyX42Mo pic.twitter.com/AYi6B4lNMz

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) April 8, 2019

Is President Trump serious? Maybe he is and if so, is it the right move?

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore