Judge denies bid to prohibit US border officials from turning back asylum-seekers at land crossings
Published:Saturday | October 14, 2023 | 7:26 PM
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday denied a bid by immigration advocates to prohibit United States officials from turning away asylum-seekers at border crossings with Mexico if they don't have appointments on a mobile phone app.
The ruling is a victory for the Biden administration and its approach to creating new pathways to enter the United States, while, at the same time, making it more difficult for those who don't follow prescribed methods to seek asylum.
More than 263,000 people scheduled appointments on the CBP One app from when it was introduced in January through August, including 45,400 who were processed in August.
The top nationalities of those who scheduled appointments are Haitian, Mexican, and Venezuelan.
The app has been criticised on the right as too permissive and on the left as too restrictive.
CBP One has become “the sole mechanism to access the US asylum process at a (port of entry) on the southern border,” attorneys for Al Otro Lado and the Haitian Bridge Alliance argued in a brief before Friday's hearing in San Diego.
Turning back people without appointments violates agency policy and leaves them ”stranded in dangerous Mexican border towns, vulnerable to kidnapping, assault, rape, and murder,” they said.
The Justice Department insisted there is no policy of turning back asylum-seekers.
While those with appointments get priority, officers cannot “turn back” people without them, government attorneys wrote.
US District Judge Andrew Schopler, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, said his hands were effectively tied by Supreme Court precedent that limits his authority on immigration policy.
The plaintiffs are disappointed with the decision and considering an appeal, said Melissa Crow, an attorney for the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, which represents them.
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