(TOPEKA) - Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is leading a coalition of state attorneys general seeking to intervene in two lawsuits between the Biden administration and immigrants’ rights groups including the ACLU (East Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Biden and M.A. v. Mayorkas).

In both cases, one before the District of D.C. Court and another in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, immigrants’ rights groups are asking the courts to toss out a Biden administration rule that allows the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to turn away some asylum seekers.

The coalition filed motions to intervene because the Biden administration entered settlement negotiations instead of defending its own rule. The coalition of states attorneys general do not believe the Biden administration will adequately represent their interests related to illegal immigration in the negotiations.
 
“We thought in good faith that the federal government would sufficiently defend this rule in court, but that turned out not to be the case. State intervention is necessary, because it is clear that the defendants cannot and will not represent the states’ interests adequately,” said Abhishek Kambli, Kansas Deputy Attorney General.

The AGs agree with the warning provided by Judge VanDyke, the 9th Circuit judge on East Bay Covenant, that “it’s hard to avoid any impression other than that the administration is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory – purposely avoiding an ultimate win that would eventually come later this year.”
 
“In the arena of immigration… (the Biden administration has) taken deliberate actions that are hostile to the intervenor states’ interests,” the motion to intervene reads. “It is hard to dispute that the current illegal immigration crisis is seriously harming the United States. Those responsible for preventing and addressing the crisis – the Department of Homeland Security and (the Department of Justice), defendants in this case – have abdicated their responsibility over and over again. And they are heading down the same road in this manner, too.”
 
Four other state attorneys general joined Kansas in seeking to intervene. They include attorneys general from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and West Virginia.
 
Read the briefs here.