Judge Blocks Biden Asylum Policy

A federal judge has blocked a controversial Biden administration policy immigration authorities leaned on to reduce migrant crossings.

The blocked rule allowed authorities to deny asylum to migrants who either didn’t follow the immigrant visa process or did not request sanctuary in a country they had passed through.

The ruling is on hold for 14 days, giving the government time to appeal.

CNN reports on the potential blow to the administration:

Judge Jon Tigar of the California Northern District Court previously ruled against a similar policy under the Trump administration and expressed skepticism that there was any daylight between Biden’s policy and the Trump-era one during a court hearing last week. Administration officials have rejected the comparison to Trump-era rules.

The Biden administration has rolled out a series of measures to try to stem the flow of migration and manage the situation along the US-Mexico border but is facing multiple lawsuits from Republican states as well as advocates, posing a risk to Biden’s border plans.

Tigar’s ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union among other immigrant rights groups over a new asylum rule that largely bars migrants who passed through another country from seeking asylum in the United States, marking a departure from decades-long protocol.

The Biden policy, like the Trump-era one, garnered wide condemnation from Biden allies, including Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates when it was rolled out. “To be clear, this was not our first preference or even our second,” an administration official conceded at the time, adding that the onus is on Congress to pass reform.

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