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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is leading a Republican state indictment to overturn a key Biden-era asylum rule, accusing the government of aiding an “invasion” of the southern border of the US, as the policy faces a barrage of lawsuits.
“This is sheer lawlessness orchestrated by our own leaders,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Eighteen states, led by Indiana, are contesting the “Bypass of Lawful Routes” rule introduced May 12 when fast-track evictions under the Title 42 Public Health Order expired.
The Biden administration’s rule assumes that migrants are not eligible for asylum if they have entered illegally and have not applied for asylum in a country they have already traveled through – although there are a number of exceptions. The administration has said it aims to discourage irregular migration and encourage migrants to use the extensive legal avenues it has significantly expanded.
GOP-LED STATES TARGET ‘SMOKE SCREEN’ BIDEN ASYLUM RULE WITH NEW LEGAL CHALLENGE
That presumption of ineligibility can be challenged if migrants exhibit exceptional circumstances. The provision has already faced legal challenge from many on the left who claim it unnecessarily restricts migrants’ right to seek asylum.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita speaks at a waiting party for Jennifer-Ruth Green, the Republican nominee for Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, in Schererville, Ind., Nov. 8, 2022.
But Republicans have also expressed frustration with the rule, arguing that it’s part of a system that otherwise pushes illegal immigrants into thinly veiled legal trails. The lawsuit by the Republican states argues that the rule “seeks to define away the problem by re-characterizing what would be illegal crossings as ‘legal trails.'”
“The Defendants allege that the Circumvention Rule will discourage illegal border crossings, reduce the number of new illegal aliens entering the United States, and reduce reliance on people-smuggling networks. The truth, however, is that the Circumvention Rule is a combination of a half-measure and a smokescreen.” the states argue. “It’s riddled with exceptions, and it’s part of the Biden administration’s broader effort to obscure the true situation on the southwestern border.”
MAJOR BIDEN ASYLUM RULE WILL BE TAKEN WITH LEGAL STRUGGLES AFTER TITLE 42 EXPIRES
The lawsuit further argues that the accompanying parole policies used by the government “will increase the number of illegal aliens in the United States by ensuring a faster path to quasi-legal status in the United States (with associated work permits and access to rights). programs and social services).”
However, the Biden administration cited a 70% drop in overall border encounters since the highs just before the end of Title 42, which it says are signs the new methods are working, though officials have also warned against concluding that figures will remain relatively low.
“As a result of planning and execution — which combined more severe illegal entry impacts with a historic expansion of legal routes and processes — illegal entries between ports of entry along the southwestern border have decreased by more than 70 percent since May 11,” according to a recent report. report. A DHS statement referred to the deportations of more than 38,000 migrants between May 12 and June 2. “DHS has overseen significant expansions of legal routes, even as we have repatriated a significant number of migrants.”
But critics point to the use of the parole programs — which include 30,000 migrants per month admitted from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua — as well as an increase of 1,250 appointments per day at border ports scheduled by the CBP One app as indicators that the De government continues to release migrants in the US, including through other means.
“I see this and many are doing this as an invasion not only of our country’s sovereignty, but also of our state sovereignty,” Rokita said. “And that invasion is once again aided and encouraged, if not directly orchestrated, and I think it’s more the latter by socialists in the White House who don’t want us to be sovereign, don’t want us to be strong,” he said.
“No country can be independent if it does not have its own borders, language and culture. And they are destroying that on all fronts,” he said. “And what do states do then? Well, we take the lead.”
The Biden administration has resisted Republican claims of neglect at the border. The government says it has been working to create a safe, orderly and humane system at the border, which it says was gutted by the previous government, while addressing the root causes of migration. Meanwhile, it has targeted Republicans in Congress for failing to pass an immigration reform bill — which Republicans rejected because of the inclusion of an amnesty for illegal immigrants — and for failing to provide additional provided funding for border handling.
“Instead of pointing fingers and making baseless attacks, Congress should work with the Department and pass comprehensive legislation to fix our broken immigration system, which has not been updated in decades,” a DHS spokesperson said. recently.
But Republican criticism is mounting, including against the CBP One app — which has been misused by some lawmakers as a “janitor” service for illegal immigrants. Rokita was similarly unimpressed with the app, which allows migrants to upload images and schedule appointments at ports of entry, dismissing it as “optics” and a way to let people into the US without long lines at the border.
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“It’s amnesty on the highest scale, not done by Congress, but done by regulation. And that’s what we’re suing to try to stop,” he said.
Rokita noted that the illegal immigration crisis is not just a border state problem and highlighted an increase in sex trafficking and the financial cost to a state like Indiana.
“They cost us $12,000 per student in education alone, $10 million per year, which means something for a state like Indiana,” he said. “That’s a real cost. And that’s not our duty under our Constitution, neither the state nor the federal.”
The magnitude of the Republican challenge to the asylum rule is highlighted in the 18 states that have banded together to support the lawsuit.
“It shows how strongly these states feel about the costs they incur because the rule of law is not upheld and about the sovereignty of their own state borders and the borders of our country. So it’s a very unifying issue in that sense for people who hold of America, who love their states,” he said.
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The rule is now on the line, along with a number of other Biden immigration policies that have been challenging. Another contentious policy saw migrants briefly released with no court date as Title 42 ended due to overcrowding.
Rokita told Fox Digital that “these are long baseball games.”
“So we’re at the top of the former. And the federal government is slowing down and slowing down,” he said, but stressed that litigation is adding pressure.
“I’ll see it to the end. I want to be clear on that. We’re going all nine innings, and then we’re going extra innings, we’re going to do what we do to keep the pressure on and win this thing.”
Adam Shaw is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.
He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or at Twitter.
