US judge blocks Biden's new border asylum restrictions
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The number of migrants caught crossing the border illegally plummeted in recent months after the new regulation went into place.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - A US federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Joe Biden’s new regulation restricting asylum access at the US-Mexico border, upending a key tenet of his plan to deter migration after Covid-era Title 42 restrictions ended in May.
California-based US District Judge Jon Tigar stayed the order for 14 days, leaving the restrictions in place for now.
The Biden administration within hours appealed to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021 pledging to reverse many of the hardline policies of former president Donald Trump, a Republican, but has adopted some Trump-like border measures as record numbers of migrants have been caught crossing illegally.
The ruling followed a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups, who revived a 2018 case brought against similar asylum restrictions implemented by Trump that Judge Tigar previously struck down.
Mr Biden’s new asylum regulation, which took effect when Title 42 ended on May 11, presumes most migrants are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations
The number of migrants caught crossing the border illegally plummeted in recent months
In a 35-page ruling, Judge Tigar - an appointee of former president Barack Obama - said US law explicitly states that crossing the border illegally should not be a bar to asylum.
Finding refuge in a third country, such as Belize, Mexico or Colombia, is “infeasible” due to limited processing capacity and other factors in those countries, he said. US law only permits limiting migrants’ access to asylum if they pass through a country that “actually presents a safe option,” he said.
The Biden administration argued that thousands of migrants per month can enter the US from abroad through new programmes, such as one for certain migrants with US sponsors. But Judge Tigar said those programmes were not open to everyone and such moves were “irrelevant to the availability of asylum.”
The Biden administration has told migrants at the border they can apply for a time to approach a legal crossing via an app called CBP One. The administration opens 1,450 appointments per day to people in central and northern Mexico.
Judge Tigar said evidence presented in the case “suggests that migrants waiting in Mexico are at serious risk of violence.”
Reuters earlier this month found tens of thousands of people, including families with young children, waiting in dangerous Mexican border towns to snag a spot on the app. Humanitarian groups warned of deteriorating sanitary conditions at migrant camps.
“Each day the Biden administration prolongs the fight over its illegal ban, many people fleeing persecution and seeking safe harbour for their families are instead left in grave danger,” said Ms Katrina Eiland, the ACLU attorney who argued the case.
The US Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS
