Admin Hit With Second Asylum Lawsuit   06/12 06:30

   

   McALLEN, Texas (AP) -- Immigration advocates filed a class action lawsuit 
Wednesday over the Trump administration's use of a proclamation that 
effectively put an end to being able to seek asylum at ports of entry to the 
United States.

   The civil lawsuit was filed in a Southern California federal court by the 
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, the American Immigration Council, 
Democracy Forward, and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

   The lawsuit is asking the court to find the proclamation unlawful, set aside 
the policy ending asylum at ports of entry and restore access to the asylum 
process at ports of entry, including for those who had appointments that were 
canceled when President Donald Trump took office.

   Unlike a similar lawsuit filed in February in a Washington, D.C., federal 
court representing people who had already reached U.S. soil and sought asylum 
after crossing between ports of entry, Wednesday's lawsuit focuses on people 
who are not on U.S. soil and are seeking asylum at ports of entry.

   No response was immediately issued by the Department of Homeland Security or 
Customs and Border Protection, which were both among the defendants listed.

   Trump's sweeping proclamation issued on his first day in office changed 
asylum policies, effectively ending asylum at the border. The proclamation said 
the screening process created by Congress under the Immigration and Nationality 
Act "can be wholly ineffective in the border environment" and was "leading to 
the unauthorized entry of innumerable illegal aliens into the United States."

   Immigrant advocates said that under the proclamation noncitizens seeking 
asylum at a port of entry are asked to present medical and criminal histories, 
a requirement for the visa process but not for migrants who are often fleeing 
from immediate danger.

   "Nothing in the INA or any other source of law permits Defendants' actions," 
the immigrant advocates wrote in their complaint.

   Thousands of people who sought asylum through the CBP One app, a system 
developed under President Joe Biden, had their appointments at ports of entry 
canceled on Trump's first day in office as part of the proclamation that 
declared an invasion at the border.

   "The Trump administration has taken drastic steps to block access to the 
asylum process, in flagrant violation of U.S. law," the Center for Gender & 
Refugee Studies stated in a news release Wednesday.