U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pushed ahead with its attempts to crack down on migration at the southern border on Monday, defending in court a virtual ban it imposed on asylum seekers and issuing its second sweeping order within a week.

A U.S. district judge in Washington heard arguments about whether to temporarily strike down the first new rule, which is designed to bar almost all immigrants from applying for asylum at the country’s southern border.

The Trump administration unveiled the rule a week ago as part of an effort to end what it has called fraudulent asylum claims from an increasing number of migrants, mainly from the impoverished and violence-plagued Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, who pass through Mexico on their way to the United States.

Judge Timothy Kelly in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia withheld ruling on whether to issue a temporary restraining order to block the rule on asylum seekers pending a trial, saying he would make that decision soon. Read more

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pushed ahead with its attempts to crack down on migration at the southern border on Monday, defending in court a virtual ban it imposed on asylum seekers and issuing its second sweeping order within a week.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pushed ahead with its attempts to crack down on migration at the southern border on Monday, defending in court a virtual ban it imposed on asylum seekers and issuing its second sweeping order within a week.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pushed ahead with its attempts to crack down on migration at the southern border on Monday, defending in court a virtual ban it imposed on asylum seekers and issuing its second sweeping order within a week.