Trump Admin Rule Banning 'Third-Country' Asylum Seekers Constitutional, Court Rules
The first challenge to the Trump administration’s new rule to reduce the flow of migrants streaming across America’s border with Mexico has been turned back.
Judge Timothy Kelly of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia refused to stop implementation of the rule, which requires that most migrants coming north through Mexico first seek asylum in one of the countries through which they pass. Only after that request is denied could migrants seek asylum in the United States.
Any migrants who arrive in the U.S. without having claimed asylum somewhere else would be ineligible for asylum in the U.S., according to the rule, which took effect last week.
Kelly said the group that sued, the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, could not prove it was being damaged by the rule to the point where the rule should be suspended.
Despite the victory, challenges to overturn the rule remain. Although the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition did not get its restraining order to block the rule, the group’s lawsuit to eventually overturn it is still alive. A second lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order will be heard in federal court in California.
Attorney Mitchell Reich, who represented the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, said the group will keep fighting.
“We had hoped to obtain immediate relief from the potentially drastic consequences of this rule, which we firmly believe violates U.S. law and the Constitution. We continue to believe that the merits of this case are very strong and look forward to their resolution in the courts,” he said in a statement, according to The Washington Post.
The Trump administration celebrated its victory.
“DHS’s new Asylum Rule stands in D.C. Court ruling! A major victory for @realDonaldTrump’s efforts to stop the crisis at our Southern border,” Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, tweeted.
DHS’s new Asylum Rule stands in D.C. Court ruling! A major victory for @realDonaldTrump‘s efforts to stop the crisis at our Southern border. ?https://t.co/HDxrfNryqu
— USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli (@USCISCuccinelli) July 24, 2019
The rule was designed to “reduce the overwhelming burdens on our domestic system caused by asylum-seekers failing to seek urgent protection in the first available country, economic migrants lacking a legitimate fear of persecution, and the transnational criminal organizations, traffickers, and smugglers exploiting our system for profits,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a statement.
McAleenan said the rule was designed by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice as a stopgap until Congress passes immigration reforms.
“Until Congress can act, this interim rule will help reduce a major ‘pull’ factor driving irregular migration to the United States and enable DHS and DOJ to more quickly and efficiently process cases originating from the southern border, leading to fewer individuals transiting through Mexico on a dangerous journey,” he said.
Attorney General William Barr said in a statement that the new rule will limit “forum shopping by economic migrants and those who seek to exploit our asylum system to obtain entry to the United States — while ensuring that no one is removed from the United States who is more likely than not to be tortured or persecuted on account of a protected ground.”
Barr said the rule was a “lawful exercise of authority provided by Congress to restrict eligibility for asylum.”
“The United States is a generous country but is being completely overwhelmed by the burdens associated with apprehending and processing hundreds of thousands of aliens along the southern border,” he said in his statement.
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