Trump Admin Hit With Second Lawsuit Over Alleged Restrictions on Asylum Access

The lawsuit alleges a presidential proclamation issued in January effectively rendered it impossible to seek asylum at ports of entry to the United States.

Immigrants cross into the United States from Mexico to be processed by Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, on May 8, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

Immigrant advocacy groups filed a class action civil lawsuit on June 11 over the Trump administration’s use of a proclamation they say effectively blocked access to asylum at U.S. ports of entry.

The lawsuit was filed in a Southern California federal court by the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS), the American Immigration Council, Democracy Forward, and the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of asylum seekers they say are fleeing persecution and torture in their home countries.

It lists Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Acting CBP Commissioner Pete Flores, and CBP Acting Executive Assistant Commissioner Diane J. Sabatino as defendants.

Unlike a similar lawsuit filed in February in a Washington federal court on behalf of individuals who had already reached U.S. soil and sought asylum after crossing between ports of entry, the latest lawsuit focuses on those who are not yet in the United States and are seeking asylum at ports of entry.

The complaint points to a Jan. 20 proclamation issued by President Donald Trump titled “Guaranteeing The States Protection Against Invasion,” in which the president declared an ongoing invasion at the southern border.

Trump’s proclamation stated that the screening process created by Congress under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to control the entry and exit of people across the borders of the United States “can be wholly ineffective in the border environment” and was “leading to the unauthorized entry of innumerable illegal aliens” into the country.

The proclamation suspended entry into the United States for any “alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States.”

It also indefinitely suspended the entry of “any alien who fails, before entering the United States, to provide Federal officials with sufficient medical information and reliable criminal history and background information.”

Immigrant advocates said in their lawsuit that the proclamation established barriers that made it “effectively impossible” for plaintiffs to access the U.S. asylum process at points of entry.

“First, Defendants pulled the rug out from under people who had made drastic and costly decisions in reliance on the processing requirements the Government had created,” the lawsuit stated. “Then, Defendants imposed new, extra-statutory medical history and criminal background requirements that they knew virtually no asylum seeker could meet because individuals fleeing persecution rarely arrive at the border with such documents in hand.”

Texas National Guard soldiers walk near the U.S.-Mexico border wall, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on March 11, 2025. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

The lawsuit further argued the Trump administration had failed to provide a mechanism for individuals to comply with the proclamation and violated the statutory rights of individuals presenting themselves at points of entry to seek asylum.

“To the contrary, Defendants have a statutory obligation to provide access to the U.S. asylum process,” the immigrant advocates wrote. “Nothing in the INA or any other source of law permits Defendants’ actions.”

The lawsuit is asking the court to find the presidential proclamation unlawful, set aside measures that plaintiffs argue have effectively ended access to asylum at ports of entry, and reinstate the opportunity to seek asylum at ports of entry, including for individuals who had appointments canceled when Trump took office.

“President Trump’s rush to abandon asylum seekers fleeing dangerous circumstances in fear for their lives in an unlawful overreach that imperils thousands of people–including children–in dire circumstances,” CEO of Democracy Forward Skye Perryman said in a statement. “America has offered refuge for those seeking asylum for the past half-century. This administration cannot undermine our democratic values and rights enshrined in U.S. law with a stroke of the pen.”

The Epoch Times contacted the White House, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Homeland Security for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.