Trump Admin Wins Two Important SCOTUS Immigration Cases

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration on two major immigration cases Thursday, handing the administration important victories in its fight to tighten the nation’s borders.

In a pair of 6–3 rulings split along ideological lines, the court said migrants in Mexico have not “arrived in the United States” for purposes of federal asylum law until they cross the border, and that courts generally cannot review the government’s decisions to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The decisions reversed lower-court rulings that had blocked the policies.

Previously, immigrants who arrived at the border and presented an asylum claim to immigration agents were considered to have “arrived in the U.S.” and were often released inside the country until their asylum papers were processed, a lengthy procedure due to case backlogs; many never chose to appear for hearings and continued to stay in the country illegally. The court’s decision allows officers to turn back would-be asylum seekers at the border without accepting their asylum applications.

The court also allowed the Trump administration to complete its revocation of TPS for Haitians and Syrians in the U.S. Immigrants with TPS are not eligible for deportation and are granted temporary work authorization. The court’s ruling will allow the administration to deport some 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians who had been granted TPS.