A San Diego non-profit has won a critical phase in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security.
Al Otro Lado, a human rights organization helping migrants and asylum seekers, filed a lawsuit in 2017 to put a stop to 'metering' practices at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Metering is when ports of entry agents turn away asylum seekers and
Al Otro Lado said it could be because of maximum capacity, invalid documents, unscheduled appointments, or other factors.
Al Otro Lado said metering often leaves asylum seekers abandoned in Tijuana, where they fall prey to dangerous circumstances.
"People that have been murdered, people that have been kidnapped, people that have been sexually assaulted," Pedro Rios, Director of the American Friends Service Committee, said.
Rios works closely with Al Otro Lado and has seen metering practices firsthand and how dangerous they can be.
"That forces many people to wait for an extended amount of time in a Mexican border town," Rios said.
Rios said he remembers when Al Otro Lado decided to combat metering, seeing the same things they witnessed at the border, helping migrants and asylum seekers with essential supplies and connecting them with different services.
"They choose [The Border Wall] out of desperation," Rios said. "Often times, they can only stay at shelters for a limited amount of time. They're waiting for a CBP One application or fleeing for their lives, which is likely the case."
Rios said he has seen other illegal practices stem from metering, like bribery, to get first in line for being processed at the border. Rios described it as an "institutionalized practice" of pushing people away from their right to seek asylum.
Al Otro Lado described a similar, unfair processand said, "Mexican government officials and non-profits made lists of people waiting to be processed. U.S. border officials sometimes coordinated informally with those keeping lists, but they did not keep lists of their own."
As of Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' new ruling could start changing those circumstances.
Two years ago, a lower court ruled that metering was unlawful, but the government appealed that decision and sent it up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Wednesday, the Court of Appeals also ruled metering to be unlawful.
While this is a win for immigration advocates, this does not prevent the federal government from pursuing higher litigation on this decision again.
Rios said he hopes this ruling will ensure that asylum seekers' rights are respected at ports of entry.
"My hope is that Customs and Border Protection agents follow this ruling the way it should be, where asylum seekers who are approaching a port of entry can do so without being forced to face different obstacles," Rios said.
