ACLU sues over Trump shutting down asylum access at the southern border

WASHINGTON — (AP) — Immigration advocacy groups on Monday sued the Trump administration over its ban on asylum access at the southern border, saying the sweeping restrictions illegally put people who are fleeing war and persecution in harm's way.

The decision outlined in one of President Donald Trump's immigration-related executive orders is "as unlawful as it is unprecedented," the groups — led by the American Civil Liberties Union — said in the complaint, filed in a Washington federal court.

“The government is doing just what Congress by statute decreed that the United States must not do. It is returning asylum seekers — not just single adults, but families too — to countries where they face persecution or torture, without allowing them to invoke the protections Congress has provided,” lawyers wrote.

The ACLU and other groups filed the complaint on behalf of Arizona-based Florence Project, El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Texas-based RAICES.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that they do not comment on impending legislation.

In an executive order, Trump declared that the situation at the southern border constitutes an invasion of America and that he was “suspending the physical entry” of migrants until he decides it's over.

The executive order also suspended the ability of migrants to ask for asylum.

In the executive order, Trump argued that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents the authority to suspend entry of any group that they finds “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

It was the latest blow to asylum access that began under the Biden administration, which severely curtailed the ability of people who entered the country between the official border crossings to qualify for asylum. But they also had a system by which 1,450 people a day could schedule an appointment at an official crossing with Mexico to seek protection in America.

Trump ended that program on his first day in office as part of a wide-ranging strategy aimed at carrying out mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally, overturning policies from former President Joe Biden that offered some immigration pathways and protections and locking out immigration access at the southern border.

Advocates say the right to request asylum is enshrined in the country's immigration law and that denying migrants that right puts people fleeing war or persecution in grave danger.

Critics have said relatively few people coming to America seeking asylum actually end up qualifying and that it takes years for overloaded immigration courts to come to a determination on such requests. People seeking asylum must demonstrate a fear of persecution on a fairly narrow grounds of race, religion, nationality, or by belonging to a particular social or political group.

In the lawsuit, the groups argued that immigration "even at elevated levels" does not constitute an invasion and noted that the number of people entering the country between the ports of entry had fallen to lows not seen since August 2020.

“The proclamation makes the sham claim of an invasion to justify wiping away all means of seeking asylum, with no regard for the fact that Congress has taken pains over four plus decades to create a safe haven for those fleeing danger," said Lee Gelernt, lead attorney for the ACLU who’s argued many of the key asylum-related cases during the past two administrations. "No President, including President Trump during his first Term, has ever claimed the power to unilaterally eliminate asylum."

The groups argued that Trump's declaration was an “extreme example of presidential overreach." They said the government is “summarily expelling noncitizens” — often in just a few hours — without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum or other forms of protection they're legally entitled to and without giving them the opportunity to make a phone call.