Nicolai Haugsted
The president gets support from the US Supreme Court.
Another legal battle over U.S. immigration policy has ended with a significant win for President Donald Trump, giving his administration broader authority to restrict access to asylum at the southern border.
In a 6-3 decision issued Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal officials may turn away asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border when crossing points are deemed too overwhelmed to process additional claims.
Court revives controversial border tool
The ruling clears the legal path for the Trump administration to revive the so-called “metering” policy, first formalized during Trump’s first term before being scrapped by former President Joe Biden in 2021.
Under the policy, immigration officials may delay or refuse to process asylum applications from migrants waiting on the Mexican side of the border if officials determine they lack the capacity to handle more claims.
Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito argued that migrants standing outside the United States have not yet legally “arrived” in the country.
“In ordinary speech, no one would say that a person ‘arrives in’ a place — for example, a house, a city or a country — before the person enters that place,” Alito wrote according to Reuters.
He added that the wording of U.S. immigration law supports that interpretation.
Liberal justices warn of deadly consequences
The court’s three liberal justices strongly disagreed.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered an unusually lengthy summary of her dissent from the bench, warning that the ruling could have life-threatening consequences for vulnerable migrants.
“The consequences of today’s decision are predictable,” Sotomayor wrote.
“More people will die. More people will attempt to cross the border illegally, and some will make it while others will not. More people will be forced to walk along the U.S.-Mexico border in dangerous conditions, trying to find a port that will inspect them. More people will turn back and be subjected to violence because of something they cannot or should not have to change about themselves, such as their race, religion, nationality or political opinion.”
In another unusual moment, Alito responded directly from the bench after Sotomayor’s remarks, saying he would have included additional arguments defending the majority’s decision had he known she intended to publicly summarize her dissent.
Homeland Security welcomes decision
The Department of Homeland Security quickly praised the outcome.
James Percival, general counsel at the department, called the ruling an important step toward strengthening border enforcement.
“It opens up an important tool to continue securing our southern border,” Percival said.
“We had to go all the way to SCOTUS to vindicate the principle that an alien is not ‘in the United States’ until he is, in fact, in the United States. We have yet AGAIN been vindicated by the Supreme Court.”
Melissa Crow, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, sharply criticized the decision.
The ruling, she argued, “should sound the alarm for anyone who cares about human rights and the rule of law.”
She added that it “suggests the president may unilaterally override decades of established law and trample on people’s legal rights if doing so suits his political agenda.”
Long-running legal fight
The legal challenge dates back to 2017, when advocacy group Al Otro Lado sued over the government’s practice of limiting access to asylum processing.
A federal appeals court ruled in 2024 that immigration officials were required to inspect asylum seekers presenting themselves at official border crossings, even if they had not physically entered the United States.
Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling overturns that decision and gives the federal government greater discretion over when asylum claims can be processed.
The decision also marks the second immigration victory for Trump at the Supreme Court on the same day. In a separate ruling, the court allowed his administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
Meanwhile, another major immigration case remains pending, with the Supreme Court expected to rule soon on Trump’s directive seeking to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States.
