US Supreme Court rejects Trump asylum ban on illegal migrants

The US Supreme Court has ruled against the Donald Trump administration's policy to deny asylum to any migrants crossing the US-Mexico border illegally.

New Justice Brett Kavanaugh and three other conservative justices sided with the administration.

The court's order Friday leaves in place lower court rulings that blocked President Donald Trump's proclamation in November automatically denying asylum to people who enter the country from Mexico without going through official border crossings.

Trump said he was acting in response to caravans of migrants making their way to the border. The administration had also complained that the nationwide order preventing the policy from taking effect was too broad.

But Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's four more liberal justices rejected the administration's suggestion for narrowing it.

On 9 November, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation stating that only asylum claims made at official ports of entry would be heard.

Lower federal courts blocked the policy from going into effect soon after.

In Solicitor General Noel Francisco's request to the Supreme Court to give the proclamation the go-ahead, he claimed the president's decree was for border security and to discourage dangerous crossings.

The petition claimed that migrants entered the US illegally and then claimed asylum, allowing them to remain in the country while their cases were being processed - even if those cases were unlikely to be granted.

"These measures are designed to channel asylum seekers to ports of entry, where their claims can be processed in an orderly manner; deter unlawful and dangerous border crossings; and reduce the backlog of meritless asylum claims."

The government added that the temporary ban would "assist the president in sensitive and ongoing diplomatic negotiations" with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.