Supreme Court sends major signal in Trump's war on immigration

The Supreme Court appeared willing to consider the Trump administration's request to block asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to reports on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court decision could give President Donald Trump and his administration the right to bring back a 2016 policy when the federal government turned away immigrants claiming asylum and seeking protection from persecution in the United States, The New York Times reported. The high court must determine "what exactly it means to 'arrive' in this country."

The current federal law allows any noncitizen who "arrives in the United States" to apply for asylum as long as they are "physically present in the United States."

The main focus of the case is whether noncitizens need to cross the border to gain the right to apply for asylum or if they can appear at the southern border and seek entry. Under the current law, migrants can announce they are seeking asylum and can get a referral for an interview to verify if the claimed fear of persecution is credible.

The case was expected to be decided in late June or early July, according to The Times. The justices reportedly spent more than an hour on Tuesday discussing the case and were "struggling to parse the difference between a person who 'arrives in' the United States and one who is 'arriving at' the border."