You may have an additional opportunity to seek asylum in the United States!
Please read this page if you:
- traveled to the U.S./Mexico border before July 16, 2019 to seek asylum, and
- placed or tried to place your name on an asylum waiting list, or tried and were unable to enter the United States at a port of entry, and
- were deported from the United States.
Al Otro Lado v. Mayorkas is a lawsuit against the United States government challenging its “metering” policies at land ports of entry at the border between the United States and Mexico.
Under metering, asylum seekers were stopped from crossing into the U.S. at ports of entry. Some asylum seekers were told that the port was full and could not process them. Others were required to put their name on a waitlist in Mexico and could not enter the U.S. to seek asylum until their number was called.
A court has prohibited the U.S. government from applying a rule known as the “third country transit rule” to deny asylum to certain people who were metered.
The “third country transit rule,” frequently called the “Transit Ban,” is a rule that was implemented in the United States on July 16, 2019. The rule limited who could get asylum in the United States. This specific rule is no longer in effect, but when it was in effect, it said that if you were from a country that was not Mexico and did not request asylum or some other form of legal protection in Mexico or in a country through which you passed on the way to the United States, you were not eligible for asylum in the United States.*
The court decision in Al Otro Lado v. Mayorkas prohibits the U.S. government from applying this rule to asylum seekers who arrived at the United States-Mexico border before July 16, 2019 but were not allowed to cross the border until July 16 or after due to “metering.”