A VIGIL was kept by religious leaders outside the United States Supreme Court as its justices heard arguments against the Trump administration’s intention to turn away refugees at the border with Mexico.
The policy, which immigration officials refer to as “metering”, and in which asylum-seekers are turned away without being allowed to make a claim, is subject to a lawsuit first filed in 2017 by the Californian human-rights organisation Al Otro Lado. A lower court found that the policy violated federal law, but the Trump administration is now seeking to overturn that ruling.
The metering policy is separate from the more general ban on asylum at the border, announced by President Trump last year. That policy also faces an ongoing legal challenge.
The Episcopal Church in the United States was one of many faith groups to sign a legal brief supporting the case brought by Al Otro Lado. The brief says: “The Government’s theory that it can bar asylum seekers from lawfully crossing the U.S. border at a port of entry — without an opportunity to seek asylum, even if they are entitled to it — rejects our civilization’s heritage and our religious and moral obligations to offer persecuted strangers a place of safety.”
Alan Yarborough, the Episcopal Church’s director of government relations, spoke at the vigil event outside the court on Tuesday of last week.
“We gather today as people of faith to say with one voice: we urge our government to honour the right to seek refuge from persecution and violence,” the Episcopal News Service reported.
“We are to see others as human and welcome them as not a stranger but a child of God. All Episcopalians reiterate the promise we make and reaffirm in our baptismal covenant: to respect the dignity of every human being. Today we urge the courts to protect the right to asylum.”
The court ruling is not expected until June, but several news outlets, including Reuters and The New York Times, reported after the hearing that the majority of the justices were apparently learning towards the Trump administration’s approach.