A federal judge on Tuesday overturned US President Joe Biden's 10-week-old asylum policy, rejecting the heart of the administration's effort to get migration across the southern border under control.
Judge Jon Tigar of the US district court in San Francisco said the policy to force asylum seekers to apply for admission to the United States from their home countries or from countries they pass through on the way was "unlawful."
His ruling could again force the US government to accept the asylum claims of any petitioner who crosses into the country, the policy that has been in place for "decades," Tigar said.
That potentially could spark a new surge of migrants to the US-Mexico frontier, after a decline for the past two months.
Tigar though immediately suspended his ruling for 14 days to give the Biden administration time to appeal it.
The Justice Department quickly filed a notice of appeal and said that in the meantime it would seek a longer stay on implementation of Tigar's decision.
The rules the Biden administration put in place in May are "a lawful exercise of the broad authority granted by the immigration laws," the department said.
The appeal could keep the policy in flux for months, with the case possibly ending up in the Supreme Court.
- End of Covid-19 controls -
The ruling came in a case brought by the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and other migrant advocacy groups after the Biden administration announced on May 16 its new approach, aimed at stemming the up to 200,000 migrants trying to cross the southern border each month.
They argued the Biden policy effectively presumes asylum ineligibility for those at the border.
Biden implemented it to replace the use of Title 42, a Covid-19 pandemic rule that had been used since 2020 to summarily block entry of migrants as a matter of public health.
Despite that rule, last year border authorities interdicted more than two million people seeking to enter the United States, either illegally or via asylum applications.
The sheer number became a major political issue for Biden, with opposition Republicans accusing him of lax border policies.
With Covid border controls lifted, Biden sought to diminish the flow by instituting a more rigid process for asylum seekers.
If at the border, they would have to use a smartphone app to obtain an interview appointment, which could take weeks if not months.
Elsewhere, they would have to request asylum from their home country or at special centers in countries they pass through.
Meanwhile people who crossed the border without going through the process would automatically lose the opportunity to gain asylum.
In all cases, the policy raised the burden of proof for the applicants and left them facing long waits for rulings.
Biden's policy however did create exceptions for unaccompanied children crossing the border, and for citizens of certain countries like Haiti and Ukraine offered a separate formal parole process.
The policy had a quick impact: the number of border patrol interdictions or "encounters" with migrants fell from 212,000 in April to 145,000 in June, according to Customs and Border Protection figures.
But Tigar found fault with Biden's policy on several points.
It did not comply with the Immigration and Nationality Act's rules on asylum, and said that legally it was inconsistent due to the exceptions it offered.
The Biden policy "is therefore arbitrary and capricious," Tigar said.
He also said it had been instituted in a rush, bypassing the legally required 60-day review period for such a complex policy.
- Warning over smugglers -
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is responsible for border security, said that for now the Biden policy remains in place.
He warned migrants that if they attempt to enter the country without documents, they face minimum five-year bans and possible prosecution.
"We encourage migrants to ignore the lies of smugglers and use lawful, safe, and orderly pathways that have been expanded under the Biden administration," Mayorkas said.
Katrina Eiland of the American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling a victory.
"But each day the Biden administration prolongs the fight over its illegal ban, many people fleeing persecution and seeking safe harbor for their families are instead left in grave danger," she said in a statement.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
