CGRS to Defend Asylum, Challenge Executive Actions

Editor’s note: The following is from a press release issued by the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). In addition to the CGRS plans described below, the American Civil Liberties Union, 22 states and two cities have already filed suits against the Trump administration over Trump’s order telling U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize birthright citizenship. Other suits have been filed challenging a Trump executive order making it easier to fire federal employees, and over Trump’s plan for a Department of Government Efficiency to be led by Elon Musk. Also see this release from the Detention Watch Network.

San Francisco, CA (January 20, 2025) – Today the Trump administration announced a collection of extreme anti-immigrant policies that will destroy access to asylum, exacerbate suffering and chaos at the southern border, and tear apart immigrant families and communities across the United States.

“The president’s first set of executive actions recycles the unlawful asylum policies of his first term, many of which the courts struck down, and all of which made communities on both sides of the border less safe,” said Melissa Crow, Director of Litigation at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). “Today the president has offered no real solutions to the challenges at our southern border. He has instead doubled down on racist fear-mongering and tried-and-failed policies of cruelty. We are ready to take this administration to court and use every tool at our disposal to halt these destructive measures. They are designed only to sow fear, punish immigrants and refugees, and destroy all legal pathways to safety for people fleeing persecution and torture. We are clear-eyed about the threats ahead and steadfast in our resolve.”

Border shutdown and suspension of asylum: The administration has issued a proclamation suspending asylum processing at the southern border and empowering border agents to “repel, repatriate, or remove” people seeking safety without due process. Weaponizing racist, conspiratorial claims of an immigrant “invasion,” the proclamation wrongly asserts that the president has unilateral authority to discard longstanding U.S. law, which permits people seeking safety to request asylum at the border and prohibits the return of refugees to countries where they face persecution or torture.

Rescission of parole and CBP One programs: The administration today ended a successful program that had permitted people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela with U.S. sponsors to fly to the United States and pursue their immigration cases safely, with the support of their communities. It has also ended the CBP One app appointment process, which – for all its flaws – had become one of the only viable routes for individuals to request asylum at ports of entry along the U.S. southern border. Today the administration cancelled all upcoming appointments, leaving roughly 30,000 asylum seekers, who had spent months awaiting their screening interviews, stranded in Mexico with no recourse. Ending these programs will shutter the few remaining pathways for people fleeing persecution to exercise their right to seek asylum.

Resumption of Remain in Mexico: The administration plans to restart its failed Remain in Mexico policy, formally known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols.” This policy forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to await their U.S. immigration court hearings in perilous conditions in some of the most dangerous parts of Mexico. It was a humanitarian and due process catastrophe. Those stranded in Mexico were unable to access legal assistance, and conditions were so dangerous that some asylum seekers were abducted en route to court. Those who could not safely return to the border for their hearings were swiftly ordered deported without having the chance to see a judge.

The Department of Homeland Security found Remain in Mexico to be an ineffective and costly policy that drained government resources. The policy did, however, directly benefit organized crime groups, which routinely kidnapped, tortured, and extorted those forced to await their court dates in cartel-controlled areas. These include cartels the president has just designated “foreign terrorist organizations” in a performative and dangerous move that will facilitate racial profiling and mass deportations without due process. When CGRS and our partners challenged Remain in Mexico in court, the policy was repeatedly found to be unlawful.

Expansion of detention: In multiple orders issued today, the president directs the Department of Homeland Security to detain noncitizens, including people seeking asylum, until their immigration proceedings have concluded. This could keep immigrants locked up for years in facilities notorious for inhumane conditions, rights abuses, and lack of access to counsel. Such a policy of mass detention would be staggeringly costly and virtually impossible to implement.

Suspension of refugee admissions: In addition to its draconian measures at the border, the administration has resurrected its refugee resettlement ban, suspending indefinitely the resettlement of refugees admitted through the overseas refugee admissions program. This move abandons our promise to families, children, and adults already granted refugee status in the United States, and will undermine the safety of refugees around the world.

Family separations: All of the policies described above will result in the cruel separation of families, including those seeking safety at the border, those approved for resettlement as refugees, and those already living together in the United States. In a shameful move, today the president also chose to dismantle the task force created to reunify parents and children who remain separated as a result of his 2018 “zero tolerance” policy.

The administration justifies these extreme measures with claims that the arrival of people seeking safety at the border is so “unprecedented” as to warrant the declaration of a national emergency – at a time when border crossings between ports of entry recently reached a four-year low. This is a transparent attempt to circumvent our laws, trample on rights, and stoke fear and hatred against immigrants. But the president cannot rewrite laws and revoke treaties by executive fiat. CGRS and our partners stand ready to challenge these brazen attempts to do so.