A court decision on an injunction barring the Biden administration’s intention to ease pandemic-related limitations on migrants seeking refuge on the southern border early next week.
Friday’s decision was the latest in a series of court decisions that have thwarted the president’s proposed immigration restrictions at the US-Mexico border.
The government has stated it would appeal, but the verdict essentially guarantees that limitations will not be lifted on Monday as planned. A delay would be a setback for campaigners who claim that people’s rights to seek asylum are being violated, and comfort for Democrats worried that a spike in illegal crossings would put them on the defense in an already difficult midterm election year.
When Yesivet Evangelina Aguilar, 34, learned of the verdict from an Associated Press reporter in Tijuana, Mexico, she grabbed her face in her palms and cried. “I feel like there’s no hope left,” said Aguilar, who fled Guerrero, Mexico, over a year ago after her brother was murdered. “It hurts so much.”
When Aguilar and her 10-year-old daughter went to the Tijuana-San Diego port of entry nine months ago, US authorities denied them asylum.
Since March 2020, more than 1.9 million migrants have been deported under Title 42, a public health provision that denies them the right to apply for asylum under US law and international treaties in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Judge Robert Summerhays of the United States District Court in Lafayette, Louisiana, ordered the limits to remain in place until a case brought by Arizona and Louisiana — and now joined by 22 other states — is heard in court.
President Joe Biden’s administration failed to follow administrative processes mandating public notice and time to seek public feedback on the intention to lift the limitations, according to Summerhays. He also stated that the states made the point that if the limits were lifted, they would suffer harm.
The court noted what he claimed were the government’s own estimates that lifting the limits would likely triple border crossings to 18,000 per day.
