A Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the path for an immigration rule restricting the ability to seek asylum to take effect while the appeals process plays out.
The order deals the Trump administration a much-needed victory, as it argues that the rule would help screen out “asylum seekers who declined to request protection at the first opportunity.”
President Donald Trump quickly took to Twitter to applaud the Supreme Court decision, writing “BIG United States Supreme Court WIN for the Border on Asylum!”
The new rule, CNN informs, prohibits Central American migrants, who have traveled through third countries, from seeking asylum in the United States, thus indirectly presenting migrants who travel through Mexico with an obstacle to obtain asylum.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg opposed the order, while the votes of the others were not made public.
“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.
“Although this Nation has long kept its door open to refugees — and although the stakes for asylum seekers could not be higher — the Government implemented its rule without first providing the public notice and inviting the public input generally required,” Sotomayor added.
An attempt by a California judge to issue an injunction was blocked by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Justice Department had asked the Supreme Court to step in, which Sotomayor criticized, saying that the administration meddles in the judicial process.
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, agreed, saying that “once again, the Supreme Court is allowing a controversial Trump administration policy to go into effect even as the legal challenges to the policy proceed through the lower courts.”
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