Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor forcefully dissented Thursday in a 6-3 ruling that restricts the legal rights of asylum-seekers, stating that "more people will die" as a result of the decision. The court's majority opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, determined that individuals must physically cross the U.S. border to be considered "arrived" in the United States and thus eligible to claim asylum.
"In ordinary speech, no one would say that a person ‘arrives in’ a place — for example, a house, a city, or a country — before the person enters that place,” Alito wrote. “An alien who is standing in Mexico does not ‘arriv[e] in the United States’ by attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country. An alien ‘arrives in the United States’ only when he crosses the border.”
The case addressed a "metering" policy, which limits the number of asylum applications processed daily at U.S. ports of entry. This policy, initiated during the Obama administration, paused under President Biden, and later sought to be reinstated by the Trump administration, resulted in thousands of asylum-seekers being turned away.
Sotomayor argued that existing law requires border agents to process all migrants who present themselves at a port of entry. "Since 1917, Congress has required immigration officers to inspect noncitizens who arrive at ports of entry to determine whether they may enter the United States,” she stated in her dissent. “This system is designed to ensure that the Government processes each person seeking to come into the United States to determine who should be let in, who should be turned away, and who should be allowed to apply for asylum."
From the bench, Sotomayor warned that the court's ruling would expose asylum-seekers to greater dangers. "More people will be forced to walk along the U. S.-Mexico border in dangerous conditions, trying to find a port that will inspect them,” she said. “More people will turn back and be subjected to violence because of something they cannot or should not have to change about themselves, such as their race, religion, nationality, or political opinion.”