The Supreme Court cleared the way in a Thursday ruling for the government to turn away more asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The 6-3 decision in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, delivered by Justice Samuel Alito, favored the Trump administration’s interpretation of an asylum clause in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The court ruled that immigrants who appear at ports of entry on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border have not “arrived” in the country and are therefore not eligible to apply for asylum and be inspected by an immigration officer.
“An alien standing in Mexico does not ‘arriv[e] in the United States’ by attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country,” reads the majority opinion, joined by the five other conservative justices. “An alien ‘arrives in the United States’ only when he crosses the border. The INA thus neither entitles an alien standing in Mexico to apply for asylum nor requires an immigration officer to inspect him.”