Supreme Court Takes Up Trump's Border Asylum Ban

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether President Donald Trump can categorically bar migrants arriving at the southern border from applying for asylum, taking up one of the defining immigration fights of his second term.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed a proclamation suspending entry for migrants “engaged in the invasion across the southern border,” and restricting their ability to invoke asylum protections “until I issue a finding that the invasion at the southern border has ceased.”

The challenge comes from 13 individuals and three immigrant-rights organizations who sued over the policy last year. Their case rests on the Immigration and Nationality Act, which specifically allows migrants to claim asylum.

A federal appeals court ruled in April that the policy violated the statute, but stayed its own decision while the case moved up. “Barring foreign individuals who are physically present in the United States from applying for asylum … cannot be squared with the statute,” wrote Judge Michelle Childs, a Biden appointee.

The administration asked the justices to settle the question. Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the measures a “cornerstone” of the president's immigration policy, and its “most effective” change in “resolving a border crisis.”

In its appeal, the government also quoted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth describing asylum as one of the “key magnets” drawing the “flood of aliens” toward the border.

The court's answer won't come fast. Arguments are expected early next year, with a decision likely before July — a timeline that leaves the proclamation's fate open through another spring at the border.