U.S. judge blocks Trump's latest asylum ban

The Trump Administration's new policy aimed at squeezing the number of asylum seekers allowed into the U.S. is blocked by a federal judge.

The new rule would require asylum-seekers to first seek safe haven in a third country they had traveled through on their way to the United States.

Eve Johnson reports.

President Trump's latest asylum ban has been blocked by a federal judge.

The new rule would bar almost all asylum applications at the U.S.-Mexico border, because migrants would first need to apply for safe haven in a third country - like Mexico or Guatemala.

But U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar from California on Wednesday (July 24) slapped the rule with a preliminary injunction, saying it was inconsistent with existing U.S. asylum laws.

The White House announced the rule only last week.

But civil rights groups moved quickly to challenge it in court.

Critics say the U.S. can't force migrants to first apply for asylum in other countries unless

Class="kln">Washington has a so-called "safe third country" agreement with that government.

Something that Trump on Wednesday said wasn't the White House's problem.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "So Guatemala gave us their word.

We were going to sign a safe third agreement and then all of a sudden they backed up.

They said it was their Supreme Court.

I don't believe that.

But they used their Supreme Court as the reason they didn't want to do it." Judge Tigar's decision came just hours after a separate ruling from a federal judge in Washington D.C.

Who refused to block the policy.

But the California decision means it won't be enforced until legal issues are sorted out.

The Trump administration has tried to clamp down on a growing stream of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, running from violence and poverty in countries Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Trump and his team says most of their asylum claims are bogus.