The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging President Biden’s decision to close the southern border to nearly all migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
The action is the first legal challenge to an order that the Biden administration hopes will decrease the number of illegal border crossings and neutralize one of the president’s most serious political vulnerabilities.
In a statement, the ACLU said the asylum ban, which took effect a week ago, violated legal protections for people seeking protection in the United States.
Biden’s order blocked access to asylum for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border without authorization. President Donald J. Trump tried to halt migration in a similar way in 2018, but the move was blocked in federal court.
“Asylum status couldn’t be clearer: You need to be able to seek protection no matter where you enter the country, which is why the courts overturned Trump’s nearly identical asylum ban and is arguably why the Biden administration recognized that he cannot. be able to do that by unilateral executive fiat,” said Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney who has challenged several immigration policies under the Biden and Trump administrations.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington, DC. She broadly disputes the executive action, as well as several narrower restrictions the administration has imposed, such as giving migrants just four hours to find a lawyer if they want to argue that they be granted an exception to the asylum ban.
Restrictions would only be lifted when the number of illegal crossings fell below 1,500 for seven consecutive days and remained so for two weeks. The numbers haven’t been this low in years; in December, there were around 10,000 illegal crossings every day. More recently, numbers have hovered around 3,000 crossings per day.
There are exceptions to the order, including for unaccompanied children and victims of human trafficking. People can also schedule an appointment to request asylum using a Customs and Border Protection app.
Migrants who say they are afraid to return can still seek protection in the United States, but they will have to submit such requests voluntarily without being asked, a practice known as the scream test. They will also have to use programs other than asylum, which have much higher standards and for which most people will not qualify.
But a large number of people seeking asylum cross illegally and then approach border agents to turn themselves in, knowing that in many cases they would be released into the United States to await court appearances that could take years.
Biden’s order aims to stop that by allowing border agents to turn away migrants more quickly while suspending long-standing guarantees that give anyone who sets foot on American soil the right to seek safe haven.
Immigrant advocates and some congressional Democrats have criticized the effort.
“This asylum ban will fail to resolve the challenges at our border, as it did under the Trump administration,” said Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California. “This will result in people with legitimate asylum claims being prevented from seeking safety and returned in danger.”
Republicans have used illegal immigration as a line of attack against Biden, although some have tried to thwart his efforts to resolve the issues. In February, egged on by Trump, Republicans blocked bipartisan legislation that had some of the most significant border restrictions Congress has considered in years.
