Ninth Circuit Finds “Metering” Policy Unlawful
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled yesterday in El Otro Lado v. Executive Office for Immigration Review that “metering” at the border violates federal law, reports Daniel Wiessner of Reuters.
The panel affirmed in part and vacated in part the district court’s permanent injunction relating to the application of the “Asylum Transit Rule”—which generally required persons traveling through a third country to apply for asylum there before seeking asylum in the United States— the policy of “metering.” Under the metering policy, whenever border officials deemed a port of entry to be at capacity, they turned away all people lacking valid travel documents.
The district court entered a permanent injunction prohibiting application of the Asylum Transit Rule to members of a class of asylum seekers who were turned away under the metering policy before the Asylum Transit Rule took effect.
The metering policy was in effect from 2016 to 2021 and allowed for the turning back of migrants at the border once a daily limit was reached.
“A noncitizen who presents herself to a border official at a port of entry has arrived in the United States … whether she is standing just at the edge of the port of entry or somewhere within it,” Obama appointee Circuit Judge Michelle Friedland wrote for a 2-1 panel.
Many thousands of asylum seekers were negatively affected by metering, reports Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle.
In June 2024, the Biden administration announced policies that block most asylum seekers at the border, which are facing court challenges of their own. Resources on the June rule and proclamation are at the links here.
KJ