Supreme Court will review an old policy used to turn away asylum seekers at the US border

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a policy used under past administrations to deny migrants a chance to apply for asylum on the Mexican border until space opened up to process claims.

The justices will hear the Trump administration’s appeal of lower court rulings that struck down the practice known as metering, in which U.S. border agents capped the number of people seeking asylum at border crossings by prohibiting migrants from setting foot in the U.S.

The administration pressed for the high court’s intervention even after President Donald Trump suspended the asylum system on the first day of his second term and advocates for migrants said the lower-court rulings have no ongoing practical effect.

The case will be argued in the late winter or early spring.

Metering was first used during President Barack Obama’s administration when large numbers of Haitians appeared at the main crossing to San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico. It was expanded to all border crossings from Mexico during Trump’s first term in the White House.

The practice ended in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic led the government to restrict asylum-seekers even more severely. President Joe Biden formally rescinded the use of metering in 2021.

Still, the Justice Department said it wanted the justices to hear the case because the court rulings took away “a tool that administrations of both parties have deemed critical for controlling the processing of inadmissible aliens during border surges.”

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant ruled in 2021 that metering violated the migrants’ constitutional rights and a federal law requiring officials to screen anyone who shows up seeking asylum.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Bashant’s ruling in a 2-1 decision. Twelve of the 29 judges on the San Francisco-based appeals court voted to rehear the case, a strong signal that may have caught the justices’ attention.

People seeking refuge in the U.S. are able to apply for asylum once they are on American soil, regardless of whether they came legally. To qualify, they have to show a fear of persecution in their own country because of specific reasons, such as their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

Once people are granted asylum, they can’t be deported. They can work legally, bring immediate family, apply for legal residency and eventually seek U.S. citizenship. It offers a permanent future in the U.S.