On January 20, 2025, the Trump Administration ended access to the U.S. asylum process at ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border. The same day, it cancelled approximately 30,000 appointments for inspection at ports made through the phone app CBP One, which were scheduled to occur in the weeks that followed. As a result of this policy to shut down asylum access at ports and the cancellation of the CBP One appointments, there is now virtually no way to seek asylum at the southern border.
The asylum shutdown policy is linked to a Presidential proclamation, issued on inauguration day, in which President Trump vaguely claimed that there is an “invasion” at the southern border. In the Proclamation, President Trump invoked section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar the “entry” of people who are part of this supposed “invasion” as well as people who come to ports of entry without providing the documents required to apply for a visa. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) subsequently issued border-wide written guidance for officers at ports of entry. That guidance states that people who are “subject to the Proclamation shall not be permitted to cross the international boundary” to be inspected at ports of entry, even if they “claim or manifest a fear.”
These actions violate U.S. law, which requires that any noncitizen “who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival . . . ), irrespective of such [noncitizen]’s status, may apply for asylum.” The power to bar “entry” in section 212(f) does not encompass the power to violate the asylum statute.
On June 11, 2025, eleven people seeking access to the U.S. asylum process and two organizations that provide services to asylum seekers, Al Otro Lado and Haitian Bridge Alliance, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California to challenge the asylum shutdown policy and the cancellation of CBP One appointments. The individual plaintiffs have fled life-threatening danger and hope to find safe haven in the United States. The American Immigration Council represents them alongside the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Democracy Forward, and the pro bono law firm Morrison and Foerster, LLP.
