Evans, Ellison file amicus brief on behalf of 46 immigration law professors
The brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is in support of a challenge to the Biden administration’s restrictions on asylum eligibility at the southern border.
Clinical Professors Kate Evans and Shane Ellison filed an amicus brief Oct. 5 in support of a challenge to the Biden administration’s restrictions on asylum eligibility at the southern border.
The brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of 46 professors of immigration law at U.S. law schools, argues that the Biden rule contradicts the text and history of the Refugee Act.
The lawsuit was brought by East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Central American Resource Center, Tahirih Justice Center, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and American Gateways – represented by the ACLU-Immigrants’ Rights Project, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, National Immigrant Justice Center, and the Center for Constitutional Rights. The government is appealing the ruling by the lower court that its new rule is inconsistent with the statutes passed by Congress.
The law scholars’ brief joins amicus briefs from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and former immigration judges and members of the Board of Immigration Appeals, as well as non-profit asylum and human rights organizations in the U.S. and Mexico.
“The world is presently confronting a record level of forced migration not witnessed since World War II,” said Ellison, supervising attorney in the Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic. “Now is not the time for the United States to shirk its international and domestic legal commitments to provide safe haven to refugees fleeing persecution.”
Added Evans, the clinic’s director: “The Biden rule strips thousands of people of their ability to seek safety under U.S. asylum law simply because they were unable to secure a coveted appointment via an app notorious for its technical glitches or are unwilling to risk further harm while they wait in Mexico.
“Our clinic represents several families forced to remain in Mexico while they tried to seek asylum. They were kidnapped, held for ransom, separated from one another, and ultimately unable to submit an asylum application for years while waiting at the border.
"Congress created a detailed system that balances broad access to asylum protections with specific limitations on eligibility; the Biden rule violates that scheme.”
Read the brief here.