Mullin v. Al Otro Lado · ¶24

A divided panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed in relevant part. Al Otro Lado v. Executive Office for Immigration Re view, 138 F. 4th 1102 (2025). It held that an alien “arrives in the United States”—and thus must be inspected and may apply for asylum—when the alien, while “standing on” the Mexico side of the border, encounters a United States official at the border. Id., at 1113, 1115. The majority based this conclusion on other language in the provision that allows certain aliens to apply for asylum. Such an application may be filed by not only an alien who “arrives in the United States” but also any alien who “is physically present in the United States.” §1158(a)(1). The majority reasoned that if, as the Government maintained, an alien “arrives in the United States” only when he enters the country, the phrase “arrives in the United States” would be “completely subsumed within the…

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