A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Biden administration’s controversial new asylum plan, which allowed immigration officials to deny asylum to most migrants if they arrived at the border without a scheduled appointment or seeking legal protection in another country before arriving in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in the Northern District of California ruled against President Joe Biden’s ban but delayed the ruling from taking effect for 14 days — giving the administration time to appeal the decision.
“The Rule — which has been in effect for two months — cannot remain in place,” Tigar wrote, siding with immigration rights advocates who slammed the order as “unlawful and inhumane.”
The Justice Department said it plans to appeal the judge’s decision.
Biden’s asylum plan was seen by immigration advocates as a continuation of Trump-era policies that allowed the federal government to turn away asylum seekers under the premise of increased COVID-19 precautions.
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The new rule had room for exceptions and didn’t apply to children traveling alone.
But the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups challenged the ban, saying it violated a law granting the right to asylum regardless of how a person enters the country and made “a mockery of our asylum system.”
The groups argued that the plan forced migrants to seek refuge in countries that can’t offer the same human rights protections as the U.S. They also said the mobile app the government wants migrants to use to schedule appointments — CBP One — was not a viable option.
Tigar agreed, writing that while asylum applicants wait for an adjudication, they “must remain in Mexico, where migrants are generally at heightened risk of violence by both state and non-state actors.”
Immigrant groups applauded the judge’s decision, calling the ruling a “victory.”
“The promise of America is to serve as a beacon of freedom and hope, and the administration can and should do better to fulfill this promise, rather than perpetuate cruel and ineffective policies that betray it,” Katrina Eiland, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement shared with Daily News.
With News Wire Services