Supreme Court backs Trump asylum restrictions at U.S.-Mexico border

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that asylum seekers standing in Mexico have not yet arrived in the United States for key Immigration and Nationality Act provisions. The decision clears the way for border officials to revive metering, a practice that can limit how many people are processed at ports of entry each day when capacity is strained.

The ruling came in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado on June 25, 2026, and overturned lower-court decisions, including a Ninth Circuit ruling, that had blocked the policy. By accepting the administration’s reading of when a person seeking entry from Mexico “arrives in the United States,” the court widened the executive branch’s control over the pace of asylum access at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Metering began in November 2016 after a surge of arrivals at U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry, continued through the presidential transition, and was rescinded in November 2021 after a district court entered summary judgment against it. The policy allowed officials to slow or cap daily processing at ports of entry when facilities were overwhelmed.

The case began in July 2017, when asylum seekers and the binational legal and humanitarian organization Al Otro Lado challenged the government’s turnback practice. The dispute has also spanned three administrations, from the border-processing practices that began under Barack Obama in 2016, to the expansion under Donald Trump’s first term, to the later rescission in 2021.

Immigration advocates warned that the policy had forced some migrants to wait in Mexico for years in dangerous conditions. The American Immigration Council warned that many were assaulted, kidnapped, raped or killed while waiting for a chance to seek asylum. The American Civil Liberties Union and allied groups argued in related litigation that the administration was trying to use executive power to strip protections Congress created for people fleeing persecution.

The asylum ruling landed the same day the court also let the Trump administration end temporary protected status for migrants from Haiti and Syria, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.