BORDERLINES

SCOTUS to Hear Challenges to Trump Board Wall Funding, Asylum Enforcement Cases

The Supreme Court said the two legal battles will be heard in 2021.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up two cases involving President Donald Trump’s immigration policies: his plan to fund the a border wall with money Congress directed to the military and an order that requires asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico as they await hearings in the U.S. The high court said it would hear the Trump administration’s appeals of the two cases, which each were found to be unlawful by lower courts. In the border-wall case, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June that the Trump administration unlawfully transferred billions of dollars in military funds to build the southern border wall with Mexico.

Despite multiple lower-court rulings, the wall construction has proceeded after the justices ruled in 2019 for the wall to move forward as litigation continued. The Supreme Court also allowed the “Remain in Mexico” asylum policy to remain in effect pending litigation—though it has since been struck down by lower courts.