United States appeals court rejects efforts to keep in place pandemic-related restrictions on immigrants seeking asylum
An appeals court on Friday rejected efforts by conservative states to maintain Trump-era asylum restrictions on immigrants seeking asylum.
With the limits set to expire next week, thousands of migrants packed shelters on Mexico’s border. The ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals means the restrictions remained on track to expire Wednesday unless further appeals are filed.
A coalition of 19 Republican-leaning states were pushing to keep the asylum restrictions that former President Donald Trump put in place at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Migrants have been denied rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The public-health rule known as Title 42 has left some migrants biding time in Mexico.
Advocates for immigrants had argued that the U.S. was abandoning its longstanding history and commitments to offer refuge to people around the world fleeing persecution, and sued to end the use of Title 42. They’ve also argued the restrictions were a pretext by Trump for restricting migration, and in any case, vaccines and other treatments make that argument outdated.
A judge last month sided with them and set Dec. 21 as the deadline for the federal government to end the practice. Conservatives states trying to keep Title 42 in place had been pushing to intervene in the case and delay the lifting of the pandemic-era restrictions. But a three-judge panel on Friday night rejected their efforts, saying the states had waited too long to try to intervene in the case. Louisiana’s Attorney General expressed disappointment with the decision and said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.
Ahead of the upcoming deadline, illegal border crossings of single adults dipped in November, according to a Justice Department court filing released Friday, though it gave no explanation for why. It also did not account for families traveling with young children and children traveling alone.
