Trump Wins Two Constitutional Arguments on Immigration

The endorsement by the Supreme Court of two more of President Trump’s immigration policies brings into focus the 47th president’s robust constitutional record. In Mullin v. Al Otro Lado the court’s six conservatives agreed with the Trump administration that asylum rights begin on American soil. In Mullin v. Doe, the same justices ruled that Mr. Trump could end the Temporary Protected Status program for Haitian and Syrian migrants.The twin rulings amount to an endorsement of the prerogative of the president to set immigration policy. Al Otro Lado turned on parsing a statute that allows any non-citizen who is “physically present in the United States” or “arrives in the United States” to apply for asylum. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, writes that “attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country” does not amount to arrival. Waiting in line in Mexico does not avail.The ruling allows for the return of the so-called “Turn Back” policy, which was first trotted out under President Obama before being adopted by Mr. Trump. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the liberal dissenters, accuses her colleagues of blessing the “executive branch’s decision to slam the door shut on all who are fleeing persecution.” To that Justice Alito replies that a “guest does not arrive in a house when he knocks on the front door.”In Doe the court affirmed the president’s prerogative to end the shield for deportations passed in Congress in 1990 to provide temporary protection to non-citizens, who now number some 356,000, mostly from Haiti, whose native lands were reckoned unsafe. The court writes that “although designed to afford temporary relief,” the bar to deportations has “in practice have often lasted for decades.” The court’s majority found that the government’s rationale for ending the program was lacking in racial animus. Justice Elena Kagan, though, reckoned that the administration’s “statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the president’s resolve to remove Haitians from this country.” Mr. Trump has called Haiti a “shithole” and a “hellhole.” The solicitor general called that language “unilluminating.”Doe and Al Otro Lado add to a growing body of Supreme Court decisions where Mr. Trump has found himself on the winning side of major issues, constitutionally speaking. In Trump v. United States, the justices concurred with his robust view of the protections afforded to the president. In Trump v. Casa, the Nine curtailed the ability of district courts to issue nationwide injunctions, which had been used to stymie the president’s agenda.In 2024, we called Mr. Trump a “constitutionalist” after a unanimous high court reversed the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that he could, on the basis of the 14th Amendment, be disqualified as an “insurrectionist.” That is not to say that Mr. Trump wins every case before the Nine — the justices have refused him on tariffs, as well as his use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to aid in deportations. He could yet lose on birthright citizenship.Mr. Trump is often accused by his adversaries of governing in a monarchical metier and indulging imperious instincts. In March Senator Elizabeth Warren declared that “Donald Trump acts like a king. He thinks he can steal our democracy.” Time and again, though, the high court has reached the conclusion — as it did twice on Thursday — that Mr. Trump is acting like nothing so much as a president and a defender of the presidency itself.

Trump Wins Two Constitutional Arguments on Immigration

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