Supreme Court Just Built Equivalent of 10 Trump Walls

If we had all woken up this morning to find that a wall had been built across the entire U.S. Border with Mexico and it was TEN TIMES higher than what Trump promised…I’m pretty sure that’s all anyone would be talking about. Well, the Supreme Court issued an order yesterday that essentially did that.

The order will fundamentally altered the way the United States has treated asylum-seekers from foreign countries. The short version is this: the Trump administration can enforce new rules that will, for the most part, bar people from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they passed through another country to get here.

The SCOTUS order is being widely reported as a MAJOR victory for the Trump administration. I don’t think most people realize just HOW significant it is. That’s why I used the (possibly click-baity) wording of “10 Trump Walls” in my headline. Before yesterday’s order, longstanding U.S. policy had been that anyone presenting themselves as a refugee HAD TO BE GIVEN a court hearing. That all changes now. If the new order sticks (and there’s no reason to think it won’t since there ISN’T a higher court) it will stop MOST asylum seekers from Central and South America. In the relative short term, expect to see the number of refugees from Guatamala, Hondorus and El Salvador reduced from “caravans” to “a trickle”.

Who WON’T the order effect? Off the top of my head, Cubans and others who make it to a U.S. beach on a boat or home-made raft; Mexicans (as long as they don’t go to another country first) and people who travel by airplane directly to the U.S. The impoverished members of the recent caravans probably would never be able to afford a plane ticket to the U.S.

Leaving aside humanitarian concerns and the validity or non-validity of refugee claims, the impact of this order cannot be understated. This SCOTUS ruling will be FAR more effective than any wall will be.

But…Trump is still going to insist on the wall anyway.