Texas attorney general files preliminary injunction to block new DHS asylum rule

EXCLUSIVE: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a preliminary injunction against a new Department of Homeland Security rule that would allow more asylum seekers to avoid being deported.

The new Biden administration policy, if implemented, would give asylum officers the ability to release asylum seekers into the United States if it is determined that detaining them during immigration proceedings would be “impracticable.”

Paxton filed the order on Monday, days after a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from ending the Title 42 public health immigration order, which allows border officials to quickly expel migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum within the United States. The Department of Justice announced it would appeal the decision blocking the Biden administration from lifting Title 42.

Paxton said that the implementation of the new rule is another way for the Biden administration to accomplish their “real goal.”

TEXAS SUES TO BLOCK BIDEN DHS RULE ALLOWING MORE ASYLUM-SEEKERS TO REMAIN IN US

Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, U.S., on Sunday, July 11, 2021.
(Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The Biden Administration has made it clear that they do not want to abide by the Constitution or the rules and regulations set by Congress, especially regarding the Texas border,” Paxton said. “Federal law requires genuine asylum and parole claims to be carefully managed and scrutinized by an immigration judge, not a bureaucrat rubber-stamping patently false claims. Not only that, but this entire Rule is just a way for this Administration to accomplish their real goal: a mass influx of illegal aliens into the United States. I’m asking the court to put a stop to the Rule before it goes into effect.”  

A press release from Paxton’s office states that the Biden administration’s proposed rule “ignores common-sense solutions and effective border-security policies.”

“Biden’s new Rule exacerbates loopholes in the illegal-alien removal process, prioritizes alleged efficiency over national security and costly impacts to Texas, and ignores common-sense solutions and effective border-security policies. If the Rule goes into effect, it will immediately make it much easier for illegal aliens to enter the U.S. and obtain asylum through false claims. The predictable result will be a massive increase in non-meritorious asylum claims,” the press release states.

BIDEN ADMIN CONFIRMS TALKS ABOUT USING VETERANS AFFAIRS RESOURCES TO TREAT MIGRANTS AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER

A U.S. Border Patrol agent sits in a truck on a road outside a ranch gate near Carrizzo Springs, Texas, U.S.
(Eddie Seal/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The state has previously argued that if the rule is implemented, it will cost the state and its residents tens of millions of dollars due to the increase of migrants being released into the state, adding that the rule transfers “significant” authority from immigration judges to asylum officers.

“The Interim Rule transfers significant authority from immigration judges to asylum officers, grants those asylum officers significant additional authority, limits immigration-judge review to denials of applications, and upends the entire adjudicatory system to the benefit of aliens,” the suit states. 

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Immigrant men from many countries are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border on December 07, 2021, in Yuma, Arizona.
(John Moore/Getty Images)

The rule is scheduled to go into effect at the end of May, but a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from repealing Title 42, leaving the rule in limbo.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report