WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an attempt by five states to defend a 2023 Biden administration border policy that the states fear the administration has abandoned.
The Justice Department said it continues to fight a legal challenge to the policy, and the states can’t show they have a direct enough interest to intervene.
Plus, the administration has since rolled out a new border rule that is tougher.
Still, Kansas and four other states with Republican attorneys general, want to keep in place a 2023 policy aimed at preventing migrants from trying to seek asylum at the southern border without having used a government app to make an appointment or first seeking protection in a country they passed through on their way to the U.S.
The Biden administration imposed the rule, which is set to expire in May, to prevent a border rush after pandemic-era restrictions were lifted.
The rule faces multiple challenges for being either too restrictive or not tough enough.
A federal district judge sided with immigrant rights groups opposed to the policy, but the San Francisco-based 9 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed it to remain in effect as the administration appealed the ruling.