Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Border Asylum Freeze
Justices will rule on whether the president can suspend legal protections for migrants crossing the southern border, a case that has moved through federal courts since February 2025.
By Neha Kapoor ·
The Supreme Court on Friday announced it will hear a challenge to President Trump’s order suspending asylum access for migrants illegally crossing the southern border. The decision adds this dispute to a growing docket of immigration cases the justices plan to resolve in the coming months. A final ruling in these matters is expected by late June or early July of 2027.
The legal fight began in February 2025 when three nonprofit organizations and 13 individuals filed a class-action lawsuit. They challenged the presidential proclamation and the subsequent guidance issued by the Department of Homeland Security. The policy allows immigration authorities to remove migrants summarily without permitting them to apply for asylum.
District Judge Randolph Moss reviewed the case in Washington. In his ruling, he set aside the administration’s restrictions and declared them unlawful. Moss determined that neither the Constitution nor federal immigration law grants the executive branch the power to replace rules enacted by Congress. He also noted that the president lacks unilateral authority to limit noncitizens’ rights to seek asylum.
Moss certified a class covering all people subject to the proclamation. His order blocked the Trump administration from enforcing the directive against that group. The government appealed the decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In April, a divided three-judge panel upheld the lower court’s findings. The majority opinion stated that the proclamation and guidance exceeded the president’s authority. The judges concluded that the executive branch cannot suspend the right to apply for asylum or deport migrants through new summary removal proceedings. The D.C. Circuit paused its enforcement of this ruling while the case moves to the Supreme Court.
The case is one of several involving the second-term immigration agenda that the Supreme Court is currently considering. The justices are also reviewing the legality of holding migrants in the U.S. illegally without access to a bond hearing. The administration has continued to enforce the asylum suspension while these legal proceedings unfold.
President Trump issued the proclamation on his first day back in the White House. He described the situation at the southern border as an invasion. His administration has since expanded enforcement operations in major cities and increased mass deportations of people in the country illegally. Unlawful crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have reached historic lows during this period, while immigration detentions have risen under the current administration.
