By Kaylee Pearlman
WASHINGTON, DC – The Biden administration this week proposed a “Trump-like” rule, said the ACLU, charging it will wrongly deny asylum to those at the southern border and “force people to seek asylum and wait for an answer in Mexico or another country they passed through.”
The ACLU argued, “The administration has not said how many appointments will be available through the mobile application, which has proven inaccessible for many people,” noting the system has been “fraught with technical problems, privacy concerns, and racial bias.
“The rule mimics illegal Trump asylum bans that were halted by the courts after ACLU lawsuits,” said the ACLU.
“This asylum ban is, at its core, Trump’s asylum ban under a different name,” said ACLU deputy director of the National Political Advocacy Department Anu Joshi, adding, “Congress designed our asylum laws to ensure that everyone escaping persecution has a chance to seek safety in the U.S.”
Joshi argued, “It will leave the most vulnerable people in much the same position as Trumps’ policy did—at risk and unfairly denied the protection of asylum…we can’t overstate the human suffering that will result.”
Omar Jadwt, the director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project at the ACLU, stated, “Whether it’s President Trump or President Biden, these asylum bans are illegal. The proposed rule should not move forward.”
