Supreme Court Agrees to Review Trump’s Southern Border Asylum Ban
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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday, Nov. 13, to review the Trump administration’s policy suspending asylum access at the southern border. The justices have accepted the government’s appeal; they have not yet ruled on whether the policy is lawful.
The decision places a central dispute over presidential immigration powers before the court: whether the executive branch can stop covered migrants from applying for asylum at all, rather than decide each application under the usual process. The case is Mullin v. Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, according to the Court’s docket.
What the Supreme Court agreed to review
The administration argues that it can categorically deny asylum applications covered by the order and need not accept requests it expects to reject. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigrant Justice Center, which represent challengers, argue that federal law protects the right to apply and does not let the president unilaterally close that route. Those positions are described in Associated Press reporting.
Federal law allows people who fear persecution to seek asylum regardless of how they entered the United States, while the government decides whether an individual qualifies. That distinction—access to an application versus the outcome of the application—is at the center of the dispute.
The policy remains in force as the case proceeds
The order has remained in effect during the lower-court litigation, AP reported. The Court’s docket records that the petition was granted on Nov. 13, limited to two questions presented; it does not list an argument date in the current docket entry. The grant therefore starts Supreme Court review but does not resolve the legal challenge.
For more reporting on U.S. political and policy developments, see The Globuzz’s Politics coverage.
Sources
Associated Press: Supreme Court will consider Trump’s executive order suspending asylum access
