Trump’s Asylum Rule Goes to Ninth Circuit

March 25, 2019

IRLI shows the need for administration flexibility

WASHINGTON – The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit defending the Trump administration’s limits on eligibility for asylum. A lower court had enjoined the administration’s rule denying asylum to aliens who illegally cross our southern border in violation of a presidential proclamation sealing that border. The administration has appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

IRLI shows in its brief that the rule is in response to an escalating crisis on our southern border – surging illegal entry fueled by aliens making what are, in the vast majority of cases, invalid asylum claims. IRLI also shows that the asylum statute plaintiffs are suing under expressly allows the administration the flexibility to respond quickly to such crises, by allowing the Attorney General to limit eligibility for asylum in the interests of national security.

“Our border is out of control, and asylum abuse is the reason,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “Due to huge numbers of invalid asylum claims, including widespread fraud, a process meant to provide refuge to the oppressed has become a conduit for out-of-control illegal immigration. As with all illegal immigration, criminals are getting through with the rest. The idea that the asylum law was drafted so rigidly that the administration cannot respond to this emergency is preposterous, and belied by the statute’s clear text.”

The case is East Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Trump, No. 18-17274 (Ninth Circuit).

For additional information, contact: Brian Lonergan • 202-232-5590 • [email protected]