Legal Aid of Marin Issues Joint Statement on Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decisions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Marin Immigrant-Serving Organizations Respond to Recent Supreme Court Rulings Impacting Immigrant Families
SAN RAFAEL, Calif., July 8, 2026 — Marin County’s immigrant families are part of the fabric of our Country, and, in the closing days of its term, the United States Supreme Court handed down three rulings that will shape their lives for years to come. On June 26, the Court issued two decisions that, together, strip away protections people here have relied on for years. Four days later, it reaffirmed the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, rejecting the administration’s attempt to deny citizenship to some children born on American soil. The undersigned organizations serving immigrant communities in Marin County condemn the first two rulings and the harm they invite, and we welcome the birthright citizenship decision as an affirmation of a bedrock American promise.
In Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, a 6–3 majority held that a person who reaches a port of entry and asks for protection has not “arrived in the United States” until they physically cross the border, and that immigration officers therefore have no obligation to inspect them or to let them apply for asylum. The decision blesses “metering,” the practice of stationing officials on the U.S. side of the border to physically block people from setting foot on American soil.
Federal courts had found that practice unlawful; the Supreme Court reversed and cleared the way for the government to revive it.
The human cost is documented and severe. As Justice Sotomayor recounts in dissent, when metering was in force, people fleeing persecution waited days, weeks, and months in makeshift camps, where they faced kidnapping, assault, and in some cases murder, while others drowned attempting more dangerous routes to safety. A 2020 report from the Department of Homeland Security’s own Inspector General found that officials turned people away while detention facilities sat empty. Justice Sotomayor invoked the 1939 voyage of the MS St. Louis, when the United States turned away more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, more than 250 of whom later died in the Holocaust. The ruling tells people who do exactly what the system asks of them, presenting themselves at a designated port to seek help, that our government may now refuse to even consider their claim.
“For decades, the United States has guaranteed that anyone who reaches our border and asks for protection will be heard. The Court’s decision breaks that promise and puts lives at risk. We see the people behind this ruling every day in Marin, families who fled violence and are working to build a safe life here. We will keep standing with them and protecting their rights,” said Lisa Bennett, who leads the Marin Rapid Response Network and serves as Executive Director of the Multicultural Center of Marin.
On the same day, in Mullin v. Doe, the same 6–3 majority cleared the way for the administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti and Syria, upending the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them parents of U.S. citizen children. The Court read the statute’s judicial-review bar so broadly that courts can no longer check whether the Secretary of Homeland Security followed the steps Congress required before ending protection, including the duty to consult other agencies about whether a country is genuinely safe. As Justice Kagan warned in dissent, a Secretary may now announce that she consulted no one and reviewed no country conditions at all, and the courts will be powerless to intervene.
The consequences will directly harm Marin’s immigrant communities. Families here who hold TPS, who have become our neighbors and coworkers and the parents of children in our schools, now face the loss of legal status and work authorization, and many face return to countries the State Department itself lists as too dangerous to visit. By holding that courts cannot review how the government ends these protections, the decision also leaves countless more families exposed.
“Here in Marin County, immigrants make our community strong. Our organizations bear witness every day to people who overcame incredible odds to get here and remain rooted in Marin to build a better life for themselves and their families. We condemn the Court’s decision and remain committed to supporting our immigrant neighbors who have TPS,” said Laura McMahon, Executive Director at Legal Aid of Marin.
The term’s final week also brought one essential victory. On June 30, in Trump v. Barbara, the Court struck down Executive Order 14160 and held, 5–4, that children born in the United States to parents who are undocumented or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment, with a sixth justice voting to void the order on statutory grounds. Writing for the Court, Chief Justice Roberts traced the Citizenship Clause from its common law roots through its adoption after the Civil War to repudiate Dred Scott v. Sandford, and reaffirmed United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 decision that has guaranteed citizenship to children born on American soil for more than a century. Every lower court to review the executive order had found it unlawful, and the Supreme Court agreed.
For Marin families, the ruling means that children born here to immigrant parents will not be consigned to life without legal status in the only country they have ever known. We celebrate that outcome while remaining watchful. Three justices dissented, a fourth would have upheld the order as constitutional while voiding it under federal law, and the administration has already said it will press Congress to restrict birthright citizenship by statute. The Fourteenth Amendment’s promise held because communities, advocates, and state governments defended it in courtrooms across the country, and defending it remains essential to our democracy.
The undersigned organizations condemn the metering and TPS decisions as attacks on due process, on our communities, and on the protections that allow people to seek safety. We call on Congress to restore what those rulings strip away and to reject any effort to undermine the birthright citizenship the Court has just reaffirmed. We recommit ourselves to the immigrant neighbors who make Marin County stronger, and we will continue to provide legal services and direct support to every person in our community who needs them. We will not stop fighting for the human rights of our immigrant neighbors.
Signed,
Marin Rapid Response Network · Legal Aid of Marin · Social Justice Collaborative
The Marin Rapid Response Network, Legal Aid of Marin, and Social Justice Collaborative are a group of legal services and emergency response providers concerned about and committed to the safety, stability, and liberation of all immigrant communities in Marin County and beyond.
Media Contact: Laura McMahon, Executive Director, Legal Aid of Marin · 415-492-0230 · lmcmahon@legalaidmarin.org