WASHINGTON —The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can turn away migrants who show up at the US-Mexico border before they can apply for asylum, in a victory for the White House’s immigration crackdown.

“In ordinary speech, no one would say that a person ‘arrives in’ a place—for example, a house, a city, or a country—before the person enters that place,” Republican-appointed Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion.

“The context in which the phrase ‘arrives in the United States’ is used in the immigration statutes at issue here supports an ordinary-meaning reading. So does the presumption against extraterritoriality.”

The three Democrat-appointed justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor took the rare step of reading her dissent from the bench.