The Biden administration says it will appeal a federal court decision last month that blocked a Trump-era policy allowing for the quick removal of asylum seekers at the border.
The Homeland Security Department said it would file an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging US District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s November ruling that ordered President Biden to lift the asylum restrictions.
FILE: A Border Patrol agent walks between a gap along the border wall between the US and Mexico in Yuma, Arizona on June 1, 2022.
(Patrick T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
The enforcement rule first took effect in March 2020, allowing the federal government to rapidly expel migrants seeking asylum to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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The restrictions were implemented under former President Donald Trump at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The practice was authorized under Title 42 of a broader 1944 law covering public health, and has been used to expel migrants more than 2.4 million times.
FILE: A group of Brazilian migrants make their way around a gap in the US-Mexico border in Yuma, Ariz., seeking asylum in the US after crossing over from Mexico, June 8, 2021.
(AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)
The Biden administration says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working on a new regulation to formalize the border restrictions.
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Sullivan, who was appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton, has called the expulsion of migrants under the rule “arbitrary and capricious.” The administration’s appeal could scuttle a Dec. 21 deadline set by Sullivan for his order from him to take effect.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
