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US judge halts Trump asylum policy plan

A US judge in California has reinstated a nationwide halt on the Trump administration's plan to prevent most migrants from seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border.

US District Judge Jon Tigar ruled in Oakland that an injunction blocking the administration's policy from taking effect should apply nationwide.

Tigar blocked the policy in July after a lawsuit by groups that help asylum seekers. But the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals limited the impact of Tigar's injunction to states within the area overseen by the appeals court.

That meant the policy was blocked in the border states of California and Arizona but not in New Mexico and Texas.

In his ruling, Tigar stressed a "need to maintain uniform immigration policy" and found that nonprofit organisations such as Al Otro Lado don't know where asylum seekers who enter the US will end up living and making their case to remain in the country.

"The court recognised there is grave danger facing asylum-seekers along the entire stretch of the southern border," Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

Trump said he disagreed with the judge's ruling.

"I think it's very unfair that he does that," Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to North Carolina. "I don't think it should be allowed."

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that a sole judge shouldn't have the ability to exert such a broad impact on immigration policy, and noted the administration's request to the Supreme Court to set aside the injunction is still pending.

"This ruling is a gift to human smugglers and traffickers and undermines the rule of law," she said.

The courts have halted some of Trump's key policy shifts on immigration, including an earlier version of an asylum ban. The president has prevailed on several fronts after initial legal setbacks, for example, when the Supreme Court recently lifted a freeze on using Pentagon money to build border walls.

The Border Patrol apprehended about 50,000 people at the southern border in August, a 30 per cent drop in arrests from July amid summer heat and an aggressive crackdown on both sides of the border to deter migrants.