Supreme Court clears Trump to revive asylum limits, end TPS for Syrians and Haitians

The asylum decision allows the federal government to turn away people seeking protection when border crossings are too overburdened to handle additional claims. That effectively revives a form of border metering, limiting how many people can seek asylum each day and allowing officials to stop migrants before they physically enter the United States. The case turned on whether people who have not yet crossed into the country are entitled to apply for asylum under federal law, and the court held that the government may stop them at the border before they set foot on U.S. soil.

The separate case, Mullin v. Doe, No. 25-1083, let the Department of Homeland Security end Temporary Protected Status for Syrians and Haitians. The ruling affects about 350,000 Haitians and about 6,000 Syrians, exposing them to potential deportation after lower-court orders had kept their protections in place. Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian program Congress created in 1990 for people who cannot safely return home, but the statute bars courts from second-guessing the secretary’s termination decisions. That decision follows Trump's move to end TPS for about 1 million immigrants from 13 countries during his second term.