Biden-Era Limits on Border Asylum Found to Be Partially Unlawful
On May 9, 2025, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that significant portions of the Biden-era "Securing the Border" rules are unlawful. RAICES, alongside Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and 28 asylum seekers, successfully challenged these immigration restrictions. The court found that the manifestation of fear requirement and the restrictive four-hour consultation window for legal counsel were arbitrary and capricious violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). While the federal court upheld the heightened eligibility threshold for withholding of removal, it ordered the vacatur of removal orders for the individual plaintiffs. Although these rules have remained in effect under the Trump administration, the ruling identifies "inharmonious" conflicts between executive asylum bans and statutory law, particularly regarding the 1,500-encounter daily threshold that triggers emergency border circumstances.
