The American Civil Liberties Union and several immigrant rights organizations filed a lawsuit Wednesday against President Biden’s recently announced ruling crackdown on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, questioning the legality of his restrictive immigration policies just a week after they went into effect.
The 29-page lawsuit is the first legal action against Biden’s attempt to use sweeping presidential authority to disqualify most migrants from asylum and make it easier for U.S. immigration officials to deport them. The partial ban on asylum applications came into effect a week ago and will remain in place until the weekly average of daily illegal border crossings falls below 1,500 – a level not recorded since 2020.
ACLU lawyers have asked the federal district court in Washington, D.C., to throw out the rules that implemented Mr. Biden’s order, arguing that they violate U.S. asylum law and federal policies. However, the civil rights group did not ask the court to immediately block the regulations, which were published by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.
The ACLU convinced federal courts in 2018 to halt a Trump administration asylum restriction that relied on the same legal authority, known as 212(f).
“We had no choice but to file this lawsuit. The ban will put countless people at risk and is legally identical to the Trump ban that we successfully blocked,” Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney behind the lawsuit, told CBS News.
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In a proclamation last week, Mr. Biden invoked the 212(f) authority to suspend entry of most migrants along the southern border, authorizing officials to deny asylum to migrants if they cross illegally between official ports of entry. Migrants who make one of the 1,450 daily appointments to enter the U.S. at ports of entry are still eligible to apply for asylum.
Biden’s move has allowed U.S. immigration officials to deport larger numbers of migrants more quickly because they cannot seek asylum. Only those who affirmatively say they fear returning to their home country are screened for other legal protections that are much harder to obtain and do not guarantee permanent safe haven, unlike asylum.
Still, the impact of Mr. Biden’s latest border measure has had a more limited impact on migrants from far-flung countries such as China, where the U.S. does not regularly carry out deportations due to diplomatic issues or logistical hurdles. Mexico only accepts its own citizens and migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In its lawsuit, the ACLU challenged the suspension of asylum between ports of entry, citing a provision in federal law that says migrants who set foot on U.S. soil “at or without a designated port of entry” may apply for asylum. In addition, it has filed a lawsuit over the requirement that migrants affirmatively express their fear of being screened, and over the increased screening standards that Mr. Biden’s measure required asylum officials to employ.
The civil rights group also challenged another measure announced last week that would cut the time migrants in U.S. border custody have to consult with lawyers before their asylum investigations from 24 to four hours.
Wednesday’s lawsuit was not surprising. Nearly every major action Mr. Biden has taken on immigration has been accompanied by lawsuits. Republican-led states have challenged Biden’s reversals of immigration policies and Trump-era programs that ease the legal entry of migrants, while advocacy groups such as the ACLU have sued over his more restrictive border policies.
In one case, the ACLU and Republican-led states questioned the same policy: a rule that considers migrants ineligible for asylum if they do not take advantage of legal avenues to enter the U.S. and fail to seek refuge in other countries. The ACLU has argued that the rule infringes on asylum seekers’ rights, while GOP administration officials have complained that it contains too many exceptions.
Camilo Montoya Galvez
