Another federal judge on Tuesday ruled against a Biden administration parole program, the second such ruling in consecutive months.
Last month, a federal judge in Florida ruled an administration’s parole program was illegal; on Tuesday, a federal judge in California ruled similarly but for different reasons.
At issue is a May 16, 2023, DHS and DOJ final rule, “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways,” which among other things established new criteria for admitting asylum seekers into the U.S., partially modeled on a Trump-era strategy.
The rule’s “primary purpose is to incentivize migrants, including those intending to seek asylum, to use lawful, safe, and orderly pathways to enter the United States, or seek asylum or other protection in another country through which they travel,” according to the rule’s preamble published in the Federal Register.
To be eligible, the rule instructs foreign nationals while in Mexico to use a newly created CBP One app. The free mobile application available through Apple App and Google Play stores “enables noncitizens without appropriate documents for admission who seek to travel to the United States through certain southwest border land ports of entry … the ability to submit information through a module within the application instead of coming directly to wait at a POE.”
Within weeks of the rule’s finalization, Texas sued, arguing it facilitated the unlawful release of people into the U.S. who otherwise wouldn’t be eligible for asylum.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar for the Northern District of California held the rule is illegal, but not exactly for the same reasons that Texas argued.
