The Border Is Not American Soil Until You Cross It |
My son took an oath to defend this country's borders. He flies Army helicopters. He understands, at a visceral level, that a line on a map means something — that the difference between inside and outside isn't philosophical, it's jurisdictional. On June 25, the Supreme Court agreed.
In Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, No. 25-5, the Court held — 6-3, with Justice Alito writing — that an alien who hasn't crossed the border into the United States hasn't "arrived in the United States" for purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That's the ruling. Write it down. An alien standing in Mexico, at the border, asking to be let in, has no statutory right to apply for asylum. An immigration officer has no legal obligation to inspect him.
The ruling didn't invent this. It read the statute.
Section 1158(a)(1) of the INA grants asylum eligibility to aliens who are "physically present in the United States or who arrive in the United States." Section 1225(a)(1) requires inspection of aliens "present in the United States who [have] not been admitted or who arrive in the United States." The plaintiffs in Al Otro Lado — a nonprofit representing would-be asylum seekers, held in queue at ports of entry under the government's "metering" policy — argued that physically presenting yourself at the border constituted "arrival" sufficient to trigger statutory inspection rights.
The Court........