The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado allows the Trump administration to revive metering, capping daily asylum processing at ports of entry.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 25, 2026, that the Trump administration may reinstate its "metering" policy, which caps the number of asylum seekers permitted to present themselves at ports of entry on any given day [1]. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, reversed a lower court injunction that had blocked the practice and held that immigration officials may lawfully deny same-day asylum processing to migrants who have not yet physically arrived at the designated entry point [2]. The decision restores an administrative tool that border officials had used during the first Trump administration to manage asylum intake volume at southern border crossings [1].
The case, *Mullin v. Al Otro Lado*, reached the Court after the nonprofit legal organization Al Otro Lado, which represents migrants and deportees, successfully obtained a district court order barring Customs and Border Protection from turning away asylum seekers who appeared at ports of entry [1]. The Department of Homeland Security appealed, and the administration argued that metering fell within the executive branch's broad statutory authority to regulate the manner and timing of border processing [2]. The ruling resolved a long-running challenge to a policy that immigration advocates had contested in federal courts for nearly a decade [1].
The substantive stakes are considerable. Federal statute, specifically 8 U.S.C. § 1158, grants any person physically present in or arriving in the United States the right to apply for asylum [2]. The majority held that metering does not violate that provision because individuals who have not yet reached the port of entry have not legally "arrived" within the meaning of the statute [2]. The three dissenting justices argued that the ruling allows the executive branch to nullify a congressional mandate by controlling the physical preconditions for triggering statutory rights [2]. Critics noted that the practical effect is to eliminate a pathway that Congress established for orderly border protection claims without formally repealing the underlying statute [1].
The ruling takes effect immediately. CBP may now reinstate metering protocols at all southern border ports of entry without further judicial authorization [1]. Al Otro Lado and allied organizations have not announced whether they will pursue legislative remedies or seek relief through parallel litigation challenging specific implementation practices. Congress has not indicated an intent to amend the asylum statute in response. The decision is final; no mechanism for further appellate review exists [2].