Trump admin hit with second lawsuit over restrictions on asylum access

Immigration advocates filed a class action lawsuit on 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 Centre for Gender & Refugee Studies, the American Immigration Council, Democracy Forward, and the Centre 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 cancelled 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 US soil and sought asylum after crossing between ports of entry, Wednesday's lawsuit focuses on people who are not on US 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 unauthorised entry of innumerable illegal aliens into the United States."  Immigrant advocates said that under the proclamation non-citizens 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 cancelled 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 US law, the Centre for Gender & Refugee Studies stated in a news release on Wednesday.