The Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration’s rule that dramatically limits the ability of Central American migrants to claim asylum to go into effect nationwide while the appeals process plays out.
Yesterday’s order is a major victory for the administration, which argued the rule was necessary to screen out “asylum seekers who declined to request protection at the first opportunity.” “BIG United States Supreme Court WIN for the Border on Asylum!” President Trump said on Twitter.
The rule, from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, prohibits migrants who have resided in or traveled through third countries from seeking asylum in the US, therefore barring people traveling through Mexico from being able to claim asylum. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted their dissent.
“Once again the Executive Branch has issued a rule that seeks to upend longstanding practices regarding refugees who seek shelter from persecution,” Sotomayor wrote, joined by Ginsburg, later referring to “some of the most vulnerable people in the Western Hemisphere.”
The Supreme Court’s order is the latest move in a case that has bounced around between lower courts. Late Tuesday night, a California federal judge’s attempt to issue a nationwide injunction on the asylum restrictions was blocked, in part, for the second by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that it will continue to challenge the rule. “We will continue challenging the ban on the merits, because it puts countless lives at risk,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.
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