Immigrant-rights groups sued Wednesday in an attempt to derail President Biden’s new border policy that limits migrants’ ability to lodge asylum claims.

Led by the American Civil Liberties Union, the groups say the policy violates immigration law and procedural laws governing executive-branch actions.

The groups said migrants have a right to apply for asylum under U.S. law and Mr. Biden’s new limits hinder that right, potentially stranding desperate people in Mexico.

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The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and challenges a new regulation issued by the Justice and Homeland Security departments as part of Mr. Biden’s election-season attempt at a get-tough border policy.

“While Congress has placed some limitations on the right to seek asylum over the years, it has never permitted the Executive Branch to categorically ban asylum based on where a noncitizen enters the country,” the groups said.

Mr. Biden’s plan applies to almost everyone coming across the southern border.

The goal is to shut down the bogus asylum claims that have flooded the system and served as a loophole, allowing millions of new illegal immigrants to settle in the U.S., where they are supposed to be waiting for hearings on their claims.

Historically, few actually win their cases. But they end up remaining in the U.S. for years or decades, which was the goal.

Mr. Biden waited more than three years into his term before announcing his get-tough approach. Under the new policy migrants will be held to a higher standard for whether they clear the initial asylum check at the border.

In the past they had to merely express a “fear” of returning home. Now they must “manifest” that fear.

The ACLU and other challengers said that’s a tough bar for a distraught migrant to meet.

“In practice, noncitizens who have just crossed the border, and may be hungry, exhausted, ill or traumatized after fleeing persecution in their home countries and danger in Mexico, are likely to be intimidated by armed, uniformed Border Patrol officers, and are thus unlikely to ‘manifest’ their fear of return,” the groups said.

Mr. Biden’s policy has also taken fire from the right, where Republicans say his moves are too little and too late. They say the president was forced to act by bad poll numbers.