(AFP) – The US Supreme Court agreed on Monday to weigh in on a policy of turning away migrants before they can cross the US-Mexico border to present an asylum claim. The policy known as “metering” was rescinded by the Biden administration, but President Donald Trump is seeking a ruling in the event it may be reinstated.
Trump campaigned for president on a promise to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States. He has taken a number of actions since returning to the White House in January aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings. The Immigration and Nationality Act allows an “alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States” to apply for asylum. A divided appeals court ruled last year that this applies to potential asylum seekers at ports of entry “whichever side of the border they are standing on.”
The Trump administration is asking the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to reject this interpretation. “In ordinary English, a person ‘arrives in’ a country only when he comes within its borders,” Solicitor General John Sauer said in a filing. “An alien thus does not ‘arrive in’ the United States while he is still in Mexico.”
Al Otro Lado, an immigration rights group representing asylum seekers, welcomed the Supreme Court decision to hear the case. “Our immigration laws require the government to inspect and process people seeking asylum at ports of entry and allow them to pursue their legal claims in the United States,” it said in a statement. “The government’s turnback policy was an illegal scheme to circumvent these requirements by physically blocking asylum seekers arriving at ports of entry and preventing them from crossing the border to seek protection,” Al Otro Lado said.
Vulnerable families, children, and adults fleeing persecution were stranded in perilous conditions where they faced violent assault, kidnapping, and death, the group added. The Trump administration announced last month that it would drastically cut back the number of refugees to be accepted annually by the United States to a record low and give priority to white South Africans. Under the new policy, the United States would welcome 7,500 refugees in fiscal 2026, down from more than 100,000 a year under Democratic president Joe Biden.
© 2024 AFP
