Federalbrief
Jan 07, 2026

SCOTUS Likely To Revive Obama-Era Practice Of Turning Away Asylum-Seekers

The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to reassess an old immigration policy that turned away asylum seekers at ports of entry along the southern border of the U.S. President Donald Trump asked the justices to look over a Ninth Circuit decision that said the barrier was illegal.

The Biden administration ended the practice, which the government refers to as “metering.” However, the Trump administration wants to keep its options open as it cracks down on immigration.

“The Constitution entrusts the power to manage the border to the political branches, not the judiciary,” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in November. Citing connections to active policies, Sauer said that “the decision below improperly ‘undercuts Congress’ authority’ to set asylum policy. It also ‘severely intrude[s] on the executive branch’s prerogative to manage our country’s borders.’”

A nonprofit immigrant rights organization, Al Otro Lado, along with 13 asylum-seekers who initiated the lawsuit at the heart of the dispute in 2017, expressed their support for the Ninth Circuit’s ruling and are prepared to defend it before the Supreme Court.

The asylum-seekers opposed the government’s petition, stating that the appeals court’s ruling only applied to a subset of migrants.

“Although the current administration’s border policies face pending legal challenges, none of the plaintiffs’ claims in those cases turn on the question presented by the petition here,” wrote Kelsi Brown Corkran, an attorney with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law. “The court’s resolution of the question presented would thus amount to little more than an advisory opinion.”

The Justice Department declined to comment on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear its appeal. The White House referred questions about the revival of the metering policy to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not answer questions about whether the Trump administration would revive the policy.

“As our attorneys have already made abundantly clear, the Trump administration has advanced the clear meaning of federal law and basic common sense in this case since day one,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that included a link to the government’s petition. “We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court.”

Advertisement

According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, individuals present in the United States, regardless of their location, are entitled to seek asylum if they can demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin.

Other posts