The Supreme Court today issued two significant immigration decisions, siding with the Trump administration in cases involving asylum processing at the border and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), while earlier this week also clarifying the authority of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to parole returning green card holders facing criminal charges.
In the first case, the Court resolved a question regarding asylum law: whether a migrant stopped by Customs and Border Protection on the Mexican side of the Southwest border has "arrived in the United States" and therefore must be allowed to seek asylum. The Court held that migrants who remain in Mexico have not yet arrived in the United States and are not entitled to inspection or access to the asylum process. As Justice Samuel Alito explained, "In ordinary speech, no one would say that a person 'arrives in' a place ... before the person enters that place."
The question in the second case was whether TPS beneficiaries from Syria and Haiti challenging the termination of their countries' TPS designations were entitled to court orders postponing those terminations while litigation proceeds. The Court ruled they were not, reinforcing the executive branch's authority to administer the program and making clear that Congress's statutory bar on judicial review means what it says. The decision also underscores that any lasting reform of the Temporary Protected Status program must come from Congress, not the courts.
"These decisions reaffirm that immigration statutes must be interpreted according to their plain meaning and that courts cannot rewrite immigration laws enacted by Congress," said Andrew Arthur, Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. "The Court made clear that if immigration laws are to be changed—whether asylum procedures or Temporary Protected Status—that responsibility rests with Congress."
Earlier this week, in Blanche v. Lau, the Court also held that CBP officers need not possess "clear and convincing" evidence that a returning green-card holder committed a crime before treating that individual as an applicant for admission and paroling him into the country to face prosecution.
The Court is still expected to issue its highly anticipated decision in the birthright citizenship case before the end of the current term.
Resources:
Two SCOTUS Victories: One for Trump on TPS, the Other for the English Language on Asylum
SCOTUS Allows Trump Administration to Remedy Past Abuses of Temporary Protected Status
SCOTUS: CBP Can Stop Green Card Holders Pending Charges
Biden’s Border Crisis Will Return If We Don’t Close These Loopholes Now