Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email

       Please enter a valid email address

       Please enter a valid email address

       SIGN UP

       I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

       Thanks for signing up to the

       Inside Washington email

       {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }}

       A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments this week in a class action lawsuit challenging a US immigration directive that critics say illegally cuts off the right to claim asylum.

       In 2017, rights groups and asylum-seekers sued the US over the practice of “metering,” also known as queue management, which entails Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents physically preventing migrants from crossing on to US soil, at which point they would have the legal right to claim asylum.

       Lower courts have struck down “metering” in the past, but the present case being argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals could set an important future precedent as the Biden administration attempts to manage record immigration across the US-Mexico border.

       "The Biden administration has not abandoned their entitlement to turn people away at the border," Baher Azmy, legal director of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, told USA Today.

       The group represents 13 people impacted by metering.

       "If they win, it would give them a potentially dangerous first step to dilute the protections of asylum and deny people access to the asylum process,” the advocate continued.

       The Independent contacted the Border Patrol for comment.

       US officials in the past have argued they’re not cutting off asylum with metering, but rather managing the logistics of processing claims in a sustainable way.

       The practice began in 2016 during the Obama administration, and grew more common under the Trump White House.

       The Biden administration has employed metering at times since taking office, as well as other tactics, like a much-maligned border-crossing app to manage asylum claims.

       CBP largely suspended metering between March 2020 and May 2023, during which the Title 42 programme that largely shut down asylum-processing on Covid grounds was in effect, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

       Despite metering being formally rescinded, the litigation “may affect the extent to which CBP can restrict access to asylum at the southwest border in the future,” per CRS.

       Under the 1986 Immigration and Naturalization Act, people persecuted for being in protected categories like race, religion, and nationality have the right to seek asylum in the US.

       More about Border Patrol Joe Biden

       Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

       Comments

       1/ 1Asylum seekers challenge Border Patrol ‘metering’ in federal court

       Asylum seekers challenge Border Patrol ‘metering’ in federal court

       An aerial image shows migrants waiting along the border wall to surrender to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents for immigration and asylum claim processing after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United Staes on the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on May 10, 2023

       AFP via Getty Images

       ？ Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

       Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

       Subscribe

       Already subscribed? Log in