Court Hands Biden Administration a Big Win on Border

An appeals court Thursday allowed a rule restricting asylum at the southern border to temporarily stay in place. The decision is a major win for the Biden administration, which had argued that the rule was integral to its efforts to maintain order along the US-Mexico border, the AP reports. The new rule makes it extremely difficult for people to be granted asylum unless they first seek protection in a country they're traveling through on their way to the US or apply online. It includes room for exceptions and does not apply to children traveling alone.

The decision by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals grants a temporary reprieve from a lower court decision that had found the policy illegal and ordered the government to end its use by this coming Monday. The government had gone quickly to the appeals court asking for the rule to be allowed to remain in use while the larger court battles surrounding its legality play out. The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 in favor of the government's request to stay the lower court's ruling while the appeal goes forward. They also said they would expedite the hearing for the appeal with both sides expected to send in their arguments to the court by mid-September and a hearing to be held at an unspecified date, meaning a relatively fast timeline to review the case.

The new asylum rule was put in place back in May. At the time, the US was ending use of a different policy called Title 42, which had allowed the government to swiftly expel migrants without letting them seek asylum. The stated purpose was to protect Americans from COVID-19. Rights groups sued, saying the new rule endangered migrants by leaving them in northern Mexico as they waited to score an appointment on the app the government is using to grant migrants the opportunity to come to the border and seek asylum. The government has argued that the rule is a fundamental part of its immigration policy of encouraging people to use lawful pathways to come to the US and imposing strong consequences on those who don't. (More US-Mexico border stories.)