Politics
Supreme Court clears way for deportations to countries migrants have never called home
The justices temporarily lifted a lower-court block on the Trump administration’s third-country deportations and will hear arguments in December. The case centers on whether migrants receive a meaningful chance to raise fears of torture or abuse before being sent elsewhere.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries not named in their removal orders, temporarily overriding a lower-court ruling that had halted the practice. The court said it will hear full arguments in December.
The brief order did not explain why the justices granted the administration’s emergency request. The court’s three liberal justices objected to lifting the block, which was issued by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston.
The administration says it has sent tens of thousands of noncitizens to countries in Latin America and Africa after their countries of origin refused to accept them. Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the policy is an important way to carry out removals, including for some people convicted of serious crimes. The administration has also said that assurances from a receiving country’s government that deportees will not face persecution or torture should be sufficient.
Immigrant advocates say migrants need advance notice and a meaningful opportunity to explain why they fear harm in a proposed destination. In court filings, the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which represents migrants in the case, said people sent without that process have experienced detention, physical and sexual abuse, disappearance and onward transfer to countries where the United States had already recognized they faced danger. The group argued that such injuries cannot be reversed.
The dispute has repeatedly reached the high court. Tuesday’s action marks the third time the justices have rejected efforts by Murphy to pause the deportations. The case now puts the due-process protections afforded to migrants against the administration’s claim that court-ordered restrictions disrupt its ability to carry out removals.
The Department of Homeland Security has described the lower-court rulings as a logistical problem, citing canceled flights, diplomatic complications and delays in removing people convicted of assault and drug offenses. The Supreme Court’s temporary order permits deportations to proceed while the larger legal dispute remains unresolved.