Supreme Court allows asylum limits for now

The Trump administration’s third country rule, which affects asylum-seekers from Central America, is back on. The Supreme Court ruled late Wednesday the United States can deny asylum to migrants if they don’t apply for it in the first country they come to after leaving home. Courts have gone back and forth on the policy, but it looks like it will stay in place while litigation against it proceeds.

How many people will this affect? An overwhelming majority of asylum-seekers at the U.S. southern border come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. People from those three countries accounted for 99 percent of apprehensions at the border so far this year. Under the new policy, they could still apply for asylum in the United States if another country they traveled through rejected them. If not, the U.S. government will place them in fast-track deportation proceedings and fly them to their home country.

Dig deeper: Read Sophia Lee’s report for WORLD Magazine about asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico for a chance to enter the United States.