The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider the legality of President Donald Trump's executive order banning asylum applications at the US-Mexico border. The administration is seeking to overturn lower court rulings that found the ban illegal and concluded that the president exceeded his authority.
The case centers on whether the administration has the authority to broadly bar asylum claims from people who have crossed the southern border. While federal law grants individuals the right to seek asylum if they fear persecution in their home countries regardless of how they arrived in the U.S., the Trump administration has credited these hardline restrictions with helping to reduce border crossings.
This case is the latest immigration issue the justices will weigh in the coming months. It serves as a pillar of a far-reaching crackdown on immigration and is the latest development involving the president's second-term immigration agenda.