Supreme Court Sides With Trump Administration on Asylum Restrictions at the Southern Border

The Trump administration continues efforts to protect Americans and our borders.

And the U.S. Supreme Court just helped the government to do both.

The administration enacted a new policy to withhold asylum from illegal aliens who’ve entered a different country first and failed to claim asylum there. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked the policy’s enforcement in July. After more legal wrangling, the same court this week lifted the nationwide injunction pending a decision on a stay.

The Supreme Court also issued an order this week. Pertaining to the initial Ninth Circuit ruling, the high court said the Trump administration may begin enforcing the asylum restriction nationwide while the case is still pending. From NBC News:

The order means, for instance, that migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador cannot seek asylum in the U.S. if they didn’t first ask for it in Mexico.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, saying the court acted too quickly and should allow the case to work its way through the normal judicial process.

The administration said the new restriction is needed to respond to “an unprecedented surge” of people who enter the country illegally and seek asylum if they’re caught. But officials said only a small fraction of them are eventually found to be qualified. “The rule thus screens out asylum seekers who declined to request protection at their first opportunity,” said Solicitor General Noel Francisco. He said it allows immigration officials to concentrate on the asylum seekers who most need protection.

The Supreme Court in July ruled that the Trump administration could use U.S. Department of Defense funds to begin building part of the border wall.

Photo credit: By Jonathan McIntosh – Own work, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons