Earlier this month, the Trump administration issued a rule and proclamation—widely known as the “asylum ban”—aimed at circumventing our nation’s laws by denying asylum to individuals who cross the southern border into the United States without inspection.

While lauding the “long and proud history of offering protection to aliens who are fleeing persecution and torture and who qualify under the standards articulated in our immigration laws, including through our asylum system and the Refugee Admissions Program,” the presidential proclamation attempted to remove those protections in direct contravention of established law. In plain terms, what the administration announced was that only those who cross the border at designated checkpoints would be allowed to request asylum, while those entering elsewhere would have to seek forms of protection that are both harder to obtain and less secure.