Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Department of Homeland Security to enforce an interim final rule barring individuals from seeking asylum unless they first sought asylum in a third country, which violates section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act as well as the 1967 Refugee Protocol:

“The Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Trump Administration to inflict its cruel new asylum policy on the world’s most vulnerable populations at the southern border is deeply disappointing, profoundly dangerous and a clear departure from both U.S. and international law.

“In its extreme deference to the Executive Branch, the Court is looking the other way as the White House effectively imposes a death sentence on asylum seekers. Make no mistake: the Court has chosen to fast-track the enforcement of a rule that is purpose-built to destroy the lifeline of asylum in America and turn America’s back on our values and ‘the least of us.’

“As the world saw after the disgraceful Korematsu v. U.S. decision, the moral judgment of history will not look kindly on the Supreme Court’s complicity as the Executive tramples over America’s bedrock value of protecting human rights.”