The United States Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump two significant victories on immigration on Thursday, clearing the way for his administration to turn back asylum seekers at the Mexican border and to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants living in the country, Associated Press( AP) reported.
The two rulings together represent the most consequential shift in US immigration law in years, and mark a major step in Trump’s stated goal of shutting down illegal entry at the southern border.
Asylum seekers can be turned back at the border
In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the court ruled that the Trump administration can revive its policy of blocking migrants from setting foot on US soil before they can claim asylum.
Under US law, anyone who arrives in the United States has the right to apply for asylum. The court ruled that migrants who have not yet physically entered the country have not technically “arrived in” it and therefore cannot claim that right.
Three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a 35-page dissent nearly twice the length of the majority opinion warning that the ruling would allow the government to turn away people who were standing at official entry points, even those certain to face persecution or death if sent back.
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“They may do so even if the asylum seeker is at the threshold of a port of entry designated to receive all non-citizens,” Sotomayor wrote. “Even if the asylum seeker is certain to be persecuted, or killed, if she is turned away.”
Human rights lawyers said the ruling effectively allows the administration to bypass both US and international asylum law. The legal battle behind the case began in 2017, during Trump’s first term, making this the culmination of a fight spanning three presidencies.
Ruling two: Protections for Haitians and Syrians can end
In another decision, the court allowed the Trump administration to end the ‘Temporary Protected Status’, a programme that shielded people from countries affected by conflict or natural disaster from deportation for around 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians currently living in the US.
Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, was created by Congress in 1990. It does not offer a path to citizenship but allows people to remain in the US with work permits for periods of up to 18 months, renewed as conditions in their home countries require. The US first granted the status to Haitians in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake there, and to Syrians in 2012 during that country’s civil war.
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Immigration lawyers argued that both Haiti and Syria remain too dangerous for people to be safely returned. Court documents cited the cases of four Haitian women who were deported from the US in February and were found dead in a river several months later. The Trump administration argued that courts had no authority to second-guess immigration officials’ decisions on the programme.
Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, his administration has ended TPS protections for people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, The Guardian reported.
The border turn-back policy is not currently in force but could be reimplemented at any time following Thursday’s ruling. Advocacy groups warned another humanitarian crisis at the border would follow if it is. The House of Representatives passed a bill with cross-party support in April that would restore protections for Haitians, but it has not been taken up by the Senate.
