Supreme Court Lets Third-Country Deportations Resume

The Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's emergency request to resume third-country deportations while it hears full arguments in December.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries not named in their removal orders, granting the Justice Department's emergency request to stay a Boston-based district court ruling. The unsigned order blocks U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's finding that the Department of Homeland Security's third-country removal policy is unlawful under federal immigration law and the Fifth Amendment's due process guarantee. The court's three liberal justices dissented, and the brief order gave no reasons, as is typical of emergency rulings. The court also said it would hear oral arguments in the case in December.

The order marks the third time the justices have rejected efforts by Judge Murphy to pause the deportations, and it is the second time the Supreme Court has sided with the administration on third-country removals specifically. According to The Guardian, the six-justice conservative majority temporarily lifted a lower-court decision that had required the administration to give immigrants notice and a chance to claim fear of torture or persecution before being sent to a country where they have no connections. Attorney General Todd Blanche called the policies 'entirely lawful and a critical tool for immigration enforcement,' while critics, including Rep. Adelita Grijalva, condemned the policy as cruel and potentially deadly for vulnerable deportees.

More than 25,000 migrants have been deported to 29 countries under the policy, according to a tally by human rights groups, with the vast majority going to Mexico. Destinations have included South Sudan, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, and the Central African Republic, some of which the State Department warns Americans against visiting. Plaintiffs represented by the National Immigration Litigation Alliance say class members removed without meaningful notice have faced beatings, sexual assault, prolonged detention, disappearance, and chain refoulement to countries the U.S. had previously protected them from. UN human rights experts warned Monday of a 'cascade of human rights violations.'

Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices the policy is 'an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens,' and said lower-court orders had created substantial logistical problems, including canceled flights and diplomatic friction. The administration argues no individualized fear determinations are needed because receiving countries have given Secretary of State Marco Rubio assurances they will not persecute or torture deportees. According to NBC News, one scheduled flight carrying 70 people with criminal convictions was canceled in the last week after the appeals court ruling took effect September 23.

Lawyers for the migrants argue the lower-court rulings do not require anyone's release and would not even prevent third-country removals if detainees were given a chance to raise objections. The lead plaintiff, identified as D.V.D., is a Cuban man with severe mental illness who fears being sent somewhere without psychiatric care. Attorney Trina Realmuto said the Supreme Court's action means people facing removal 'are once again at immediate risk of being sent to places where they have no meaningful opportunity to seek protection.'

The Supreme Court will hear full oral arguments in December and issue a definitive ruling on whether the policy is legal, whether it violates due process or the convention against torture, and whether lower courts had jurisdiction to order nationwide relief. Until then, removals to third countries can proceed without the notice-and-hearing requirements Murphy imposed.