The Supreme Court rejected a Trump administration request to allow it to enforce its new policy effectively prohibiting asylum for migrants who illegally cross the southern border.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, the newest member of the court, would have granted the Trump administration’s request to halt a lower court ruling that blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its new policy, according to the order from the court Friday.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the court’s liberal wing to deny the administration’s request.
In a filing with the court last week, Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the justices to put on hold an injunction from the U.S. district court in San Francisco that blocked the administration from enforcing its asylum policy.
Francisco called the injunction “deeply flawed” and warned that leaving the order from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in place that prohibited the Trump administration from addressing the “ongoing crisis at the southern border” would have “significant implications for ongoing diplomatic and foreign relations.”
Trump issued his new policy for asylum seekers Nov. 9, as a caravan of thousands of migrants from Honduras and other parts of Central America made its way north toward the U.S.
The order deemed migrants who fail to present themselves at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border ineligible for asylum. Under previous asylum rules, those who entered the U.S. could request to remain in the country.
Trump’s new policy was swiftly challenged in federal court by immigrant-rights organizations, which sued to stop the measure from taking effect.
After Tigar issued his temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the policy, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to lift the order.
