The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously that federal appeals courts must defer to immigration agencies’ factual findings when deciding whether an asylum seeker’s accepted facts qualify as persecution, a decision seen as a legal win for the Trump administration.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing for the Court, said the Immigration and Nationality Act requires this deferential review, meaning appeals courts can only overturn an agency’s decision if it is clearly unsupported by the evidence. The Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling. No justices dissented.
The case involved Douglas Humberto Urias-Orellana, a Salvadoran national who entered the United States without authorization in 2021 with his wife and child. He testified that a hitman had targeted him in El Salvador. An immigration judge found his testimony credible but determined the events did not meet the legal threshold for asylum, a conclusion the Supreme Court left in place.
