Lewis & Clark Law Review
First Page
181
Abstract
The first Trump Administration saw intense border crackdowns and a ramping up of restrictions on asylum. While some of these policies shifted under President Biden, many were recreated under new names. The second Trump Administration has functionally closed the border and deported asylum seekers to third countries such as Costa Rica and Panama, leaning heavily on Latin American countries to accept expelled migrants. As U.S. courts fail to preserve asylum law domestically, international law, as integrated into the constitutions of Latin American countries, can provide a valuable litigation tool to block those countries from participating in the U.S. border externalization regime. This Note examines this concept through case studies as applied to the 2023 Circumvention of Lawful Pathways Rule and to U.S. support for migrant pushbacks in Guatemala and Colombia, with the hope that this approach carries forward into the second Trump era and beyond.
Recommended Citation
Natalie Lerner,
Rights as Remedies: Using Latin American Legal Channels to Halt U.S. Border Externalization,
1
Lewis & Clark L. Rev.
181
(2025).
Available at:
https://lawcommons.lclark.edu/lclr/vol29/iss1/5
Included in
Human Rights Law Commons, Immigration Law Commons, International Law Commons, Latin American Studies Commons