GOP-led states ask courts to stop changes to US asylum cases

ABILENE, Texas (AP) — Republican are widening their efforts to stop the Biden administration from changing how asylum claims on the U.S. border are handled. Texas and Arizona on Thursday both filed lawsuits asking courts to block new procedures that could decide asylum cases in months, instead of years. The new rules would empower asylum officers, and not just immigrations judges, to grant or deny claims. Earlier this week, a federal judge in Louisiana temporarily stopped the Biden administration’s move to phaseout asylum restrictions that were put in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.