Statement from the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) on SCOTUS Decision on Asylum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 2026       
CONTACT: press@ilapmaine.org    

Maine – On June 25, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that will allow immigration officials to refuse entry to people seeking asylum at the border and prevent them from having the opportunity to apply for asylum protections that they qualify for under our laws. Asylum metering and turnback policies, forcing people to wait in Mexico or find more dangerous routes to enter the United States, are well documented to put already-extremely vulnerable people at more risk.   

 ILAP’s Executive Director, Sue Roche, issued the following statement: 

“The U.S. asylum system exists to protect the lives of people fleeing persecution and circumstances that are beyond their control. Seeking asylum is not a choice. It is an act of last resort. It is unconscionable to turn people back from reaching U.S. soil and then tell them that because they are not on U.S. soil, they cannot ask for asylum.  

Asylum seekers who have been turned back at ports of entry and left stranded in Mexico have been violently assaulted, kidnapped, raped, trafficked, and even killed. As Justice Sotomayor rightly said in her dissent: ‘The consequences of today’s decision are predictable. More people will die.’ 

Today’s SCOTUS decision is counterintuitive, guts U.S. asylum protections, and is a betrayal of the international treaties the U.S. committed to in the aftermath of World War II.  

No matter the setbacks, ILAP will not cease in advocating for the rights, dignity, and protection of asylum seekers. The United States has the resources and capacity for a fair and functioning asylum system. We call on Congress to correct course and clarify that people have the right to seek asylum at U.S. at ports of entry and cannot be turned away. We must work for a nation that recognizes and embraces the shared humanity in all of us.”