Supreme Court to take up case over border asylum claim location

Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Nov 17, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the Trump administration can revive a policy from the president’s first term of denying asylum claims by preventing migrants from crossing the border from Mexico.

The Trump administration asked the justices to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which required border agents to accept asylum claims from immigrants who present themselves at the Mexican side of the border.

The case is the most high-profile immigration case the justices have accepted for this term, and they likely will hear arguments and issue a decision in the case before the conclusion of their term at the end of June.

The lawsuit turns on whether immigration officials can prevent asylum claims by stopping immigrants at the border, as the relevant asylum law allows an immigrant to start their claim when he or she “arrives in” the U.S.

Trump adopted the policy in his first term, referred to as “metering,” where border officials would turn away potential asylum-seekers at the border before they could set foot in the U.S. and make their claims.

The policy faced a challenge by immigrant rights group Al Otro Lado and a group of asylum-seekers in federal court, where they argued the Trump policy violated immigration law.

The administration asked the justices to take up the case after a ruling from the 9th Circuit found the law required officials to start processing asylum claims if an applicant presented themselves to officials at the border, rather than on U.S. soil itself.

Although the Biden administration ended the policy, the Trump administration urged the justices to take it up again in their petition, arguing “this administration and future administrations should retain the option of reviving that practice when border conditions justify doing so.”

The case is not the only one over Trump policies on asylum claims. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has heard arguments over a trial judge’s ruling that found the Trump administration’s attempts to effectively end asylum applications at the border violated federal immigration law.

The Supreme Court case is Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security et al. v. Al Otro Lado, a California Corporation et al.