President Donald Trump reacted to an order from a federal judge on Tuesday to halt enforcement of his order to deny asylum to the migrant caravan crossing into the United States illegally at the Southern border.
“This was an Obama judge, and I’ll tell you what, it’s not going to happen like this anymore,” Trump said, about the judge’s ruling on the migrant caravan.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of San Francisco, appointed by former President Barack Obama, issued a restraining order of the Trump administration’s effort to deny asylum to migrants trying to cross the southern border illegally.
The administration would still allow people crossing through legal points of entry to claim asylum.
The president complained about activist judges as he left the White House for his Thanksgiving weekend in Florida.
“That’s not law, that’s not what this country stands for,” Trump said, reacting to the ruling.
The White House also released a strongly worded statement condemning the judge’s order.
“This decision will open the floodgates, inviting countless illegal aliens to pour into our country on the American taxpayer’s dime,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement calling the ruling “contrary to well-established Federal law.”
Sanders defended the Trump administration’s authority to defend the country’s borders through the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Homeland Security.
“This temporary injunction is yet another example of activist judges imposing their open borders policy preferences, which are rejected by the overwhelming majority of the American people,” she said.
The Trump administration’s challenge to the order will likely end up in the more left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court.
Trump preemptively attacked the Ninth Circuit, arguing that his order would be upheld by the Supreme Court.
“Well you go to the Ninth Circuit, and it’s a disgrace, we’re going to put in a major complaint,” he said.