Media captionTrump and the facts about the migrant caravan
A US federal judge has blocked an order issued by President Trump to deny the possibility of asylum to migrants crossing the southern border illegally.
US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco issued the temporary restraining order after hearing arguments by civil rights groups.
Mr Trump signed the order earlier this month as thousands of migrants made their way towards the US border.
He cited national interest concerns but was opposed by civil rights groups.
Migrants from across Central America have been travelling north for weeks towards the US-Mexico border. Mr Trump has described the group as a "large caravan of people".
They say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
In the run-up to the US mid-term elections, President Trump said many of the migrants were criminals, called the caravan an invasion, and ordered troops to the border. He also repeatedly suggested it was politically motivated.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman and Justice Department spokesman Steven Stafford called the asylum system "broken" in a joint statement, noting their departments will continue "to defend" the policy.
They said the current system is "being abused by tens of thousands of meritless claims every year", and supported Mr Trump's actions as "legitimate and well-reasoned".
"It is absurd that a set of advocacy groups can be found to have standing to sue to stop the entire federal government from acting so that illegal aliens can receive a government benefit to which they are not entitled."
What did the judge say?
Judge Tigar, in his ruling, said current legislation made it clear that any foreigner arriving in the US "whether or not at a designated port of arrival" could apply for asylum.
He said Mr Trump's proclamation on 9 November was an "extreme departure" from prior practice.
"Whatever the scope of the president's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," Judge Tigar added.
He was responding in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
They argued that Mr Trump's ruling was illegal.
The judge's restraining order comes into immediate effect and remains in place until a court hearing in December to decide on the case.
What is President Trump's order?
The proclamation on 9 November says that anyone who wants to claim asylum in the US has to come in through official points of entry - and their cases will not be heard if they enter illegally.
The ban was to last 90 days or until the US reached an agreement with Mexico to turn back asylum-seekers.
Under US law, there is a legal obligation to hear asylum claims from migrants if they say they fear violence in their home countries - regardless of how they have entered the country.
It said the president had the power to "suspend the entry of all aliens" and to impose "any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate on them" if they were judged to be "detrimental" to US interests under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
A statement at the time said: "We are using the authority granted to us by Congress to bar aliens who violate a presidential suspension of entry or other restriction from asylum eligibility."
There has been no response yet to the San Francisco ruling.
What is the situation on the US-Mexico border?
The US website Politico reports that 5,800 troops sent to bolster defences on the border will be home for Christmas. It quotes Army Lt Gen Jeffrey Buchanan as saying they have an "end date" of 15 December.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionAbout 3,000 members of the caravan have so far arrived in Tijuana
The decision to send troops came at the height of President Trump's dire warnings about the caravan during campaigning for the mid-term elections - and he was accused of deploying active troops for political purposes.
About 3,000 members of the caravan have so far arrived in Tijuana, the Mexican city bordering the US.
The city's authorities expect numbers to reach 10,000 in coming weeks.
Claiming asylum is a long and difficult process, and people need to prove they are fleeing, or fear prosecution or torture in their country. Economic migrants do not qualify for asylum.
Most of them go through a process called "credible fear", in which an asylum officer examines their case. If the fear is determined to be credible, the individuals are referred to immigration courts. In negative cases, they are ordered to be removed.
Between October 2016 and September 2017, officials found 60,566 people to have credible fear among 79,710 cases, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Many of them remain detained during the process.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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