A federal court ruling this week that threatens to shut down the Biden administration’s cornerstone of its post-Title 42 border strategy is raising new fears from both DHS officials and critics that it may spark a new surge at the southern border just as numbers have started to drop.
Judge Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocked the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule Tuesday in response to a lawsuit from a coalition of left-wing immigration groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The rule bars migrants from claiming asylum if they have crossed the southern border illegally and failed to claim asylum in a country through which they have already passed.
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS KEY BIDEN ASYLUM RULE AT CORE OF POST-TITLE 42 STRATEGY
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during a daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House May 11, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
The rule was part of a carrot-and-stick approach that saw the rule combined with a stiffening of Title 8 penalties and a significantly expanded use of legal pathways. The administration has been allowing up to 1,450 migrants a day into the U.S. via the CBP One app and another 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans each month in via a separate parole program.
The administration said the strategy was working, pointing to a 70% decrease between the highs before the end of Title 42 on May 11 and immediately after. Recently, June’s border numbers showed a sharp drop from over 200,000 in May to over 144,000 at a time when numbers typically increase.
“Our approach to managing the borders securely and humanely even within our fundamentally broken immigration system is working,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
“Unlawful entries between ports of entry along the southwest border have consistently decreased by more than half…
