Supreme Court gets one right on immigration
After some recent disappointments for conservatives, the Supreme Court got it right on Thursday when it ruled in a 7-2 decision that migrants denied asylum are not entitled to additional denial appeals beyond those established by Congress.
The justices reversed a misguided decision by the 9th Circuit that had said congressionally established restrictions violated the due process rights of those who enter the country.
Each year, the government apprehends hundreds of thousands of migrants near the border attempting to enter the country illegally. Many of those migrants then request asylum because it increases their chances of staying. But it would clog the system if every asylum-seeker were entitled to indefinite appeals of denied requests. Thus, Congress in 1996 passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, or IIRIRA. The intention was to set up an expedited process that could quickly filter out dubious claims while allowing more time to examine the rest. To that end, the law prevented these asylum-seekers from appealing decisions under the federal habeas statute.