Supreme Court takes up Trump asylum ban at southern border

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether President Donald Trump can bar people who cross the southern border illegally from seeking asylum, taking up a policy that remains in force despite rulings that it exceeds his authority.

The case tests a proclamation Trump issued on Jan. 20, 2025, his first day back in office. Declaring an “invasion” at the southern border, he suspended entry for migrants crossing between ports of entry and directed that people without required documents be removed without access to asylum and other legal protections. The Department of Homeland Security issued guidance to carry out the directive, which immigration authorities have used to summarily remove migrants.

Federal law provides a process for people seeking asylum to argue that they face a “credible fear” of persecution or torture if returned to their home countries. The administration contends that the president has broad power to restrict entry, while the groups and individuals challenging the policy say Congress did not authorize him to bypass that process.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court the proclamation “rests on a commonsense understanding of the President’s inherent and delegated powers to exclude aliens.” He cited an immigration-law provision allowing the president to restrict entry when he finds it would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

The challengers — 13 unnamed people and three groups — filed suit in February 2025. The groups are the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. Their lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union argue that Trump “may not invent by fiat a new removal system that eviscerates the protections Congress mandated by statute.”

In July 2025, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled that neither the Constitution nor immigration law gave the president authority to replace the procedures set by Congress. He certified a class of people covered by the proclamation and blocked enforcement against them. A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld his ruling in April, finding that the proclamation and DHS guidance exceeded the president’s authority.

The policy has remained in effect during the litigation. The appeals court put its ruling against DHS on hold pending Supreme Court review.

The justices are also considering two other challenges to Trump administration immigration policies. One concerns deporting migrants to countries with which they have no previous connection when they cannot be returned to their home countries. The other concerns indefinitely detaining immigrants in deportation proceedings without access to a bond hearing.

The Supreme Court’s decision in the asylum case is expected by the end of June, NBC News reported. CBS News said decisions in the immigration cases are expected by the end of June or early July.