A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter flies, as U.S. military personnel stand near a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, as they await a visit from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
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WASHINGTON - A leading U.S. civil rights group on Monday filed a lawsuit targeting President Donald Trump's sweeping ban on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the restrictions effectively block all access to asylum for migrants at the border in violation of U.S. laws and international treaties.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, challenges a ban issued by Trump after taking office on Jan. 20 that blocks all migrants "engaged in the invasion across the southern border" from claiming asylum or other humanitarian protections.
Trump, a Republican, has taken an array of executive actions to deter illegal immigration and ramp up arrests and deportations of migrants in the U.S. illegally. The actions include sending additional U.S. military troops to the border and directing other federal agencies to assist immigration enforcement.
Trump's ban on asylum at the border goes further than restrictions put in place by former President Joe Biden in June to discourage illegal crossings. Biden's restrictions were coupled with a legal entry program that allowed 1,450 migrants per day to schedule appointments at a legal border crossing to request asylum, an initiative that Trump ended hours after taking office.
The Biden restrictions remain in place and are subject to a separate ACLU legal challenge.
Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney who has litigated other prominent asylum cases, said Trump's ban was unprecedented. "It eliminates all avenues to seek asylum, completely ignoring the statutory system created by Congress," Gelernt said in a statement. "Countless families will be in danger based on the pretense that we are under an invasion by desperate immigrants."
The ACLU-led lawsuit was filed on behalf of three immigrant advocacy groups in Texas and Arizona in federal court in Washington, D.C.
The ACLU successfully blocked several Trump policies restricting asylum during his 2017-2021 presidency.
Trump's latest asylum ban employs a statute known as 212(f) to block all migrants at the southern border from claiming asylum, the same legal authority Trump used for his travel ban policies targeting Muslim-majority countries and other nations.
The Supreme Court upheld a version of Trump's travel ban in 2018.
