A group of organizations supporting immigrants sued the Biden administration on Wednesday. They challenged President Joe Biden’s recent decision to stop considering asylum claims at the southern border effectively. The groups argue that Biden’s directive closely resembles a similar action by the Trump administration that courts had previously blocked.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), is the first legal challenge to Biden’s broad crackdown on immigration at the border. This move follows months of discussions within the White House and aims partly to counter political criticism of Biden’s immigration policies.
“We had to file this lawsuit because Biden’s asylum ban is legally the same as the Trump ban that we successfully stopped,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the ACLU.
Joe Biden arrives on Air Force One (Via Michael Santner/Shutterstock)
Biden’s order, issued last week, would restrict the processing of asylum claims when encounters with migrants between official border points reach 2,500 per day. This rule took immediate effect because recent encounters have been much higher, averaging about 4,000 daily.
These restrictions will remain in place until a sustained decrease, with a seven-day average of encounters dropping to 1,500 or fewer per day for at least two weeks. However, it’s uncertain when encounter numbers will reach this lower level; the last time was in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The order was implemented on June 5, and Biden administration officials anticipate a surge in deportations as a result.
