The action is the first legal challenge to an order that President Biden hopes will decrease the number of illegal crossings and neutralize a major political vulnerability.

“The asylum statute could not be clearer: that one must be able to seek protection regardless of where they enter the country, which is why the courts struck down Trump’s near-identical asylum ban and is undoubtedly why the Biden administration has acknowledged it may not be able to do this by unilateral executive fiat,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U. who has challenged several immigration policies under the Biden and Trump administrations.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240614115111/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/12/us/politics/aclu-lawsuit-biden-border-asylum.html