The Supreme Court’s conservative super majority on Thursday sided with the Trump administration in a 6-3 ruling, and in a sharp dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor described the consequences of turning away asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Following the ruling in Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of Homeland Security v. Al Otro Lado, Sotomayor spoke from the bench and reminded the high court of a historical moment in 1939 when more than 900 Jewish refugees who were attempting to flee persecution in Nazi Germany boarded the M.S. St. Louis in Hamburg, Germany, and were turned away from Cuba and the United States during the Holocaust. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson also joined the dissent.
“The ship docked in the Havana harbor for days, but the Cuban Government refused to allow the fleeing passengers offboard,” Sotomayor wrote. “The ship then sailed near the Miami coastline, but the U.S. Government also turned them away in part because the immigration laws at the time had strict country quotas and the relevant quota was already filled for that year. The ship sailed to Canada and was again turned away. It eventually returned to Europe. Tragically, over 500 of the refugees that had attempted to flee were trapped in Western Europe under German control, and over 250 of them died during the Holocaust. Most of them were ‘murdered in the killing centers of Auschwitz and Sobibór’ and ‘the rest died in internment camps, in hiding, or attempting to evade the Nazis.'”
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Sotomayor argued that the majority’s decision would have serious repercussions.
“The majority ignores the statutory context and history, not to mention the longstanding position of the Executive Branch, all of which show that any noncitizen arriving at our doorstep and seeking admission must be inspected and allowed to apply for asylum, regardless of whether her foot has crossed the threshold,” Sotomayor wrote. “Because the Court today blesses the Executive Branch’s decision to slam the door shut on all who are fleeing persecution, despite the detailed inspection and asylum system that Congress enacted and commands, I respectfully dissent.”
Sotomayor also issued a warning.
“The consequences of today’s decision are predictable,” she wrote. “More people will die. More people will attempt to cross the border illegally, and some will make it while others will not. More people will be forced to walk along the U. S.-Mexico border in dangerous conditions, trying to find a port that will inspect them. More people will turn back and be subjected to violence because of something they cannot or should not have to change about themselves, such as their race, religion, nationality, or political opinion. Because this is neither what Congress said nor what its words permit, I respectfully dissent.”
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