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Judge won’t block US asylum restrictions at southern border

FILE - In this July 17, 2019, file photo, a United States Customs and Border Protection Officer checks the documents of migrants before being taken to apply for asylum in the United States, on International Bridge 1 in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. On Wednesday, July 24, 2019, a federal judge in San Francisco will hear arguments in a challenge to the new Trump Administration policy that requires asylum-seekers who cross through a third country headed to the U.S. to first apply for protection in that other country. The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Center for Constitutional Rights as they seek a temporary restraining order to block the plan. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge says the Trump administration can enforce its new restrictions on asylum for people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border while lawsuits challenging the policy play out.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington has refused to grant a temporary restraining order. Another hearing on a similar suit is scheduled later Wednesday in California.

Kelly says the immigrant advocacy groups that sued didn’t prove that their work would be “irreparably harmed” if the policy went into effect.

The proposal prevents most migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they passed through another country first.

It targets the tens of thousands of Central American adults and children who cross Mexico every month to try to enter the U.S. It also would affect asylum-seekers from Africa, Asia, and South America.

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