Texas AG sues Biden administration over asylum app

Texas argues the phone app called CBP One encourages illegal immigration
CBP One allows migrants to set up appointments to seek entry into U.S.
Mayorkas: 740 people have been admitted through the app per day

Updated: May 24, 2023 / 11:19 AM CDT

DALLAS (NewsNation) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration over what he calls an illegal use of a federally developed app that helps asylum seekers, arguing it’s being used to circumvent federal law.

Paxton alleges that the CBP One app is “illegally pre-approving” asylum seekers to cross the U.S. southern border and allowing them to “go where they please,” according to the lawsuit. Migrants are going to cities that have struggled with the influx of migrants from the border, like New York, Chicago or Denver.

It’s another attempt from Texas, which has sparred with the Biden Administration over the border for years, to try to curb illegal immigration in the wake of the end of Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that allowed migrants to be quickly expelled from the border.

The lawsuit targets a newly implemented asylum rule, which presumes anyone who crosses the border to be ineligible for asylum if they unless they used the app. Yet, migrants have reported the app is difficult and doesn’t always work.

“Neither the app nor the Border Patrol officers at the southern border ask if the illegal aliens are seeking asylum, nor do they validate any claim for protection. the Biden administration is inviting tens of thousands of aliens into Texas, releasing them into the country, and inflicting serious costs on the state of Texas,” Paxton said in the lawsuit.

CBP One debuted during the Trump administration, and the Biden administration revamped and expanded it in preparation for this transition from Title 42 to the new policy. It offers asylum seekers a way to schedule appointments, send paperwork and present their cases to immigration officials, a right guaranteed under international law, before arriving at the border.

“We have admitted approximately 740 people through the CBP One per day, the majority of individuals which have been admitted are Haitian,” said U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “We are expanding that CBP One app to reach as many as 1.000 people per day.”

Customs and Border Protection data shows officials are apprehending about 4,000 people a day at the border. The number is down from the more than 10,000 people per day officials saw in the days leading to Title 42’s end.

Meanwhile, it’s not the only immigration lawsuit lodged against the Biden administration. Florida has sued over a policy that would release some migrants into the U.S. on parole.