A US judge has blocked an order by President Donald Trump which denied asylum for immigrants who enter the country illegally from Mexico.
In the latest courtroom blow to Trump's hardline immigration policy, District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco passed a temporary restraining order against the asylum rules.
Mr Trump had declared that immigration officers would now only process asylum claims for migrants who present themselves at an official entry point, saying the system was currently overwhelmed.
But civil rights groups hit back with legal action, saying the US president's November 9 order contravened immigration law.
In his ruling, Judge Tigar called the latest rules an "extreme departure" from practice set by Congress, which allows for immigrants to apply for asylum no matter how they entered the US.
"Whatever the scope of the President's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," wrote the judge, who was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama.
Courts have also blocked several of Trump's previous immigration policies, including measures targeting sanctuary cities.
The asylum ruling came as thousands of Central Americans, including a large number of children, are travelling in caravans towards the US border to escape violence and poverty at home.
Some have already arrived at Tijuana, a Mexican city on the border with California.
But rights groups have said immigrants are being forced to wait days or weeks at the border before they can present themselves for asylum, and the administration has been sued for deliberately slowing processing times at official ports.
Mr Trump sent more than 5,000 soldiers to the 2,000-mile frontier with Mexico to harden the border, although critics dismissed the move as a political stunt ahead of congressional elections on November 6.
Additional reporting by Reuters
