“AOL III” is the latest challenge to the U.S. government’s policy of denying access to the asylum process to migrants at the Southern border. It follows our landmark lawsuit Al Otro Lado v. Mayorkas (AOL I), which successfully challenged the Trump administration's so-called "metering" policy by which vulnerable asylum seekers were turned away from seeking asylum at a port of entry and forced to wait months on a waitlist, and AOL II, which challenged the government’s mandate to restrict access to the asylum process through the CBP One mobile application. The case is brought on behalf of immigrant rights groups Al Otro Lado and Haitian Bridge Alliance and 11 individual asylum seekers.

On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration suspended access to asylum for migrants at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration also abruptly cancelled all scheduled CBP One appointments — a government-administered smartphone app that was (1) the only available avenue for most noncitizens to seek asylum and (2) notoriously difficult to access — leaving approximately 30,000 asylum seekers with CBP One appointments (and potentially hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers who had not yet obtained one) stranded in Mexico.

The lawsuit charges that the shutdown of CBP One came without prior notice, explanation, or any chance for the public to comment, and effectively closed the Southern border, and all those who wished to seek asylum and who had waited their turn for a CBP One appointments in violation of a clear U.S. statutory obligation to provide access to the U.S. asylum process. In addition to endangering countless noncitizens marooned in violent and unstable conditions, the U.S.’s actions have severely impeded Al Otro Lado and Haitian Bridge Alliance’s vital efforts to provide legal and humanitarian assistance on both sides of the border.