A Win For Border Security

Yesterday the Supreme Court handed Donald Trump his biggest victory yet. In a controversial ruling, the high court decided in Trump’s favor regarding injunctions placed against his asylum policy. The policy bans asylum seekers who try to enter the United States through a third country, requiring them to seek shelter in the country they’re passing through. This following a ruling by the 9th Circuit, known for its judicial activism, on Monday ending the nationwide injunction.

Sotomayor also criticized Trump for requesting the Supreme Court intervene in lower court’s rulings.

Fox News reports: “The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — long a liberal bastion that has been aggressively reshaped into a more moderate court by the Trump administration — handed the White House a partial victory in the case on Monday by ending the nationwide injunction. But the 9th Circuit kept the injunction alive within the territorial boundaries of the circuit — which encompasses California, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Idaho, Guam, Oregon and Washington.”

A Major Trump Victory

Late last night, the Supreme Court ruled the administrations ban on asylum is a go in all 50 states, effective immediately. This is not a final ruling on the ban’s merit, as that is still winding its way through the lower courts, but it is still a major victory for the Trump administration and for border security. The issue of border security has been a long-running one, with the Trump administrations attorneys claiming if the injunction was not lifted it would “severely disrupt the orderly administration of an already overburdened asylum system.”

President Trump had made the promise to give due attention to the border crisis, and to stem the tide of aliens seeking asylum after traveling through a third country (like Mexico) in an effort to ease the strain on an overburdened asylum system. The new asylum rule will greatly reduce the number of people seeking asylum in the US. Most asylum seekers came to America’s southern border from places like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. They travel through Mexico to seek asylum here.

Sotomayor and Ginsburg Dissent

The Hill notes: “They would make people seeking asylum who pass through another country before the United States ineligible unless they first seek asylum in the country through which they are traveling.” In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “Once again the Executive Branch has issued a rule that seeks to upend longstanding practices regarding refugees who seek shelter from persecution.” She adds that the Government didn’t take the proper steps toward implementing the rule, claiming it didn’t seek public input before doing so.

She was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in claiming President Trump broke procedural law in announcing the policy before he jumped through all the hoops allegedly required. Sotomayor also criticized Trump for requesting the Supreme Court intervene in lower court’s rulings. The Washington Times notes that “The policy, issued in July, was intended to discourage migrants from Central America who have streamed north in recent months, prepared to make iffy asylum claims and counting on the backlogged U.S. system and lax standards for initial asylum claims to earn them a foothold in the U.S.”