A federal judge blocked a Biden asylum rule making migrants ineligible for asylum if they entered illegally and did not use lawful means established by the federal government.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Judge Jon Tigar blocked the rule in response to a lawsuit from left-wing immigration organizations.
The groups found the rule to be similar to a Trump-era policy that was also blocked.
Judge Tigar found the rule to be “both substantively and procedurally invalid” under the Administrative Procedure Act, which determines how federal agencies enact rules and calls for notice-and-comment periods.
According to Judge Tigar, the Biden rule was too complex for a 30-day notice period.
“The complexity of the Rule suggests that 30 days is unreasonable, particularly because the agencies were preparing for the end of Title 42 well before it was announced, such that they could have issued the Notice with sufficient time to grant a longer comment period and still have had the Rule in place when Title 42 expired,” Judge Tigar wrote.
He continued, “The agencies also did not disclose other, relevant policy changes that would affect the agencies’ reasoning for adopting the Rule, including one that controverted an assumption central to the agencies’ projection of post-Title 42 encounters at the southern border.”
The ruling will take effect in fourteen days, leaving an opportunity for the Biden administration to appeal.
Reporting from Fox News:
The rule formed the centerpiece of the administration's strategy to deal with the expiration of the Title 42 public health order in May. It presumes migrants to be ineligible for asylum if they have entered the U.S. illegally and have failed to claim asylum in a country through which they have already traveled. The administration has said it is designed to discourage irregular migration and encourage migrants to use the expanded legal pathways set up, including the use of the controversial CBP One app – which allows migrants to apply for one of the more than 1,400 appointments at a port of entry each day to be paroled into the U.S. … The rule has formed a central cog in the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle a post-Title 42 surge, along with messaging, cooperation with NGOs and Mexico, and a stiffening of traditional Title 8 penalties. It has also set up processing centers across Central America, increased refugee admissions and set up a special parole system for up to 30,000 Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians each month to fly into the U.S.
