Continuing to Fight – Asylum Policy Update
Advocacy Education | September 19, 2019
The Supreme Court has granted the Trump Administration a stay of its “Third Country” asylum policy, wherein it has decided not to accept asylum applications from southern border crossers who traveled through a third country on their way to apply for asylum in the United States. This policy, which effectively blocks vulnerable Central Americans fleeing for safety, has been the subject of hot debate.
Most recently, the District Court of Northern District of California granted a nationwide injunction against this policy, which advocates celebrated days earlier but is now ineffective. Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissented, citing three reasons this policy is likely unlawful, and explaining that they found the government did not meet its weighty burden in proving the need to enforce this policy, an attempt to “upend longstanding practices regarding refugees.”
ILC laments this development and continues to fight for the most vulnerable among us.
-Alexis Steele, Policy Staff Attorney