District Court Judge Tries to Block Trump Border Proclamation
Does the simple prospect of seeking asylum trump border security?
By Andrew R. Arthur on July 7, 2025
Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order last week in Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Servs. [RAICES] v. Noem. That order attempts to block the border and port restrictions implemented by President Trump’s Proclamation 10888 — which have brought an unprecedented level of security to the Southwest border. It’s a doozy, and DOJ has already filed its notice of appeal. We will soon see whether the simple prospect of applying for asylum and similar protections is so overpowering in the law that it trumps border security.
Proclamation 10888
Trump issued Proclamation 10888, “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion”, on his first day back in office.
Under the authority in sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), section 1 of the proclamation suspended entry by “aliens engaged in the invasion across the southern border” (i.e., illegal entrants) and section 2 restricted their ability to apply for asylum under section 208 of the INA.
Section 3, again using the powers in sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the INA, suspended the entry of both illegal entrants and aliens stopped at the ports who failed “to provide Federal officials with sufficient medical information and reliable criminal history and background information” necessary to determine whether they are inadmissible under sections 212(a)(1) through (3) of the INA, which bar the admission of aliens on health-related, criminal, and national security grounds, respectively.
Section 4 of Proclamation 10888 relied on the federal government’s duty to “protect each state against invasion” in Article IV, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution to, again, “suspend the physical entry of any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States”.
Returning to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the INA (and the Constitution generally), section 5 of the proclamation directed DHS, DOJ, and the State Department to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States”.
https://cis.org/Arthur/District-Court-Judge-Tries-Block-Trump-Border-Proclamation
