The U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week to reenter the fractious national debate over immigration by taking up a new case, which asks whether asylum seekers who present themselves at the U.S. border may be lawfully turned away or whether they must instead be inspected by immigration officials and entered into the asylum system for further processing.
The case is Noem v. Al Otro Lado. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, an alien "who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival)…may apply for asylum." In May, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that for purposes of federal immigration law, an alien who had reached the U.S. border, yet was still on the Mexican side of that border, had "arrive[d]" in the U.S. "The phrase 'arrives in the United States,'" the majority held, "encompasses those who encounter officials at the border, whichever side of the border they are standing on."
