A coalition of immigrant advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Wednesday, challenging President Joe Biden’s recent directive that effectively halts asylum claims at the southern border. They argue that this directive is very similar to a previous policy by the Trump administration, which was blocked by the courts.
The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), is the first legal test of Biden’s comprehensive border crackdown. This policy, developed after months of internal White House discussions, aims to counter political criticism of the president’s immigration policies.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU, stated, “By enacting an asylum ban that is legally indistinguishable from the Trump ban we successfully blocked, we were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit.”
