Supreme Court rules Trump can turn back asylum seekers at US border in major immigration win

Key Points:

• The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration's "metering" policy, which limits the number of migrants allowed to apply for asylum daily at the US-Mexico border, is lawful, allowing the government to turn away migrants before they formally apply for asylum.
• The majority opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, stated that migrants standing in Mexico have not "arrived in" the United States under the ordinary meaning of the phrase, thus do not have an automatic right to apply for asylum upon reaching the border.
• Immigration advocates and the three Democrat-appointed justices dissented, arguing the policy violates federal law and endangers migrants by forcing them to wait in dangerous conditions without access to asylum processing.
• The metering policy was implemented under President Obama in 2016, expanded during Trump's administration, terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and formally rescinded by President Biden in 2021, but the Supreme Court's ruling revives its legality.
• The ruling sparked a tense exchange between Justices Alito and Sotomayor, with Sotomayor condemning the decision's humanitarian consequences and Alito defending the Court's limited role in addressing the wisdom of immigration policies.