US Supreme Court Allows Trump to Resume Third-Country Deportations

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday granted an emergency request from the Justice Department to lift a Boston federal judge's injunction against the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy. The 6-3 decision allows the government to resume sending migrants to countries other than their own without first giving them a chance to prove the dangers they might face there.

The policy, implemented last year, has resulted in more than 25,000 migrants being deported to 29 nations, with the vast majority sent to Mexico. Human rights groups challenging the policy say removals have also targeted politically unstable countries such as South Sudan, Uganda, and Equatorial Guinea.

“A bad day for criminal illegals and open-borders activists alike”

US District Judge Brian Murphy ruled in February that the policy violated immigration statutes and Fifth Amendment due process protections. The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his injunction in September, prompting the administration's emergency appeal to the high court.

The Supreme Court's order is provisional; it does not rule on the policy's legality. The justices agreed to hear oral arguments in December, with a final ruling expected afterward. The three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented from the decision to allow deportations to resume immediately.

DHS General Counsel James Percival praised the decision on social media, while lawyers for the plaintiffs at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance warned the court has allowed the administration to continue removals that put migrants at risk.