US court rejects maintaining COVID-19 asylum restrictions
REYNOSA, Mexico — 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.
ADVERTISING
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 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were a pretext by Trump for restricting migration, and in any case, vaccines and other treatments make that argument outdated.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.
Border cities, most notably El Paso, Texas, are facing a daily influx of migrants that the Biden administration expects to grow if asylum restrictions are lifted.
Tijuana, the largest Mexican border city, has an estimated 5,000 people in more than 30 shelters, Enrique Lucero, the city’s director of migrant affairs said this week.
In Reynosa, Mexico, near McAllen, Texas, nearly 300 migrants — mostly families — crammed into the Casa del Migrante, sleeping on bunk beds and even on the floor.
Rose, a 32-year-old from Haiti, has been in the shelter for three weeks with her daughter and 1-year-old son. Rose, who did not provide her last name because she fears it could jeopardize her safety and her attempts to seek asylum, said she learned on her journey of possible changes to U.S. policies. She said she was happy to wait a little longer in Mexico for the lifting of restrictions that were enacted at the outset of the pandemic and that have become a cornerstone of U.S. border enforcement.
“We’re very scared, because the Haitians are deported,” said Rose, who is worried any mistakes in trying to get her family to the U.S. could get her sent back to Haiti.
