The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether a president can declare an “invasion” at the southern border and, with that word alone, shut people out of the asylum system. A federal judge and a federal appeals court have already said he cannot.
The stakes reach Black readers through a pattern that has repeated at the border for years. Haitians, Ghanaians, Cameroonians and Congolese have been among those seeking protection, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) has called earlier border shutdowns an “Anti-Black Immigration Shutdown” that falls hardest on African and Caribbean communities. A ruling for the administration would make the closure permanent in practice, with no hearing for anyone it covers.
The case is about Proclamation 10888, which Trump signed on Jan. 20, 2025, his first day back in office. Titled “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion,” it says the number of people entering has “overwhelmed the system” and that the situation at the southern border “qualifies as an invasion.” It bars people who cross between ports of entry from invoking the parts of immigration law that let them stay while they pursue asylum or related protection, and it has no exceptions for families or children.
U.S. District Judge Moss in Washington ruled in July 2025 that the proclamation was unlawful to the extent it suspended access to asylum. On April 24, 2026, the D.C. Circuit affirmed, 2-1, holding that the Immigration and Nationality Act does not let the executive create new summary removal procedures or deny people access to asylum and withholding of removal. A Homeland Security spokesperson said then that the ruling would “not be the last word on the matter.” The government filed its petition with the Supreme Court on Aug. 24.
No argument date has been set. The justices normally decide their biggest cases before the term ends in late June.
The administration’s argument is that the president has broad power over who enters the country. The appeals court answered with the statute: Congress wrote into the law a right to apply for asylum for anyone physically in the United States, and a proclamation cannot repeal it.
The proportions matter. BAJI’s analysis found that Black undocumented immigrants are 5.4% of the undocumented population but 20.3% of those facing removal based on criminal convictions. People who are already over-targeted once inside the system are the ones least able to afford losing the one door that lets them make their case to a judge.
This court has not been kind to migrants from Black countries. In June it handed down 6-3 rulings that let the administration move against Haitian Temporary Protected Status holders. Its record is the reason to take this case seriously, and the reason Congress should not leave the right to seek asylum to the justices’ mercy. Two courts have read the statute the same way. The Supreme Court should too.
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