US Supreme Court sides with Trump administration to restart deporting migrants to ‘third countries’

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume deportations of migrants to countries other than their homelands, lifting for now a court order requiring they get a chance to challenge the deportations.

The unsigned decision from the SC was issued in response to an emergency request by the Justice Department to overturn a lower court’s stay on the policy known as third-country deportations.

The Trump administration has backed the third country deportations as necessary since the home nations of some of those who are targeted for removal mainly refute to accept them.

The SC gave no explanation for its decision, with the three liberal justices dissenting. While the underlying case challenging third-country deportations will move forward in an appeals court, the apex court's ruling permits the deportations to continue in the meantime.

District Judge Brian Murphy had directed a pause to third country deportations in April, stating migrants were not being given a "meaningful opportunity" to challenge their expulsions. Murphy said they should get at least 15 days to contest their deportation and give evidence of whether they may be at torture or death situation if expelled.

The case centres on the deportation of eight men, two from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos, Mexico, and South Sudan, whom US authorities identified as convicted violent offenders. They were en route to conflict-ridden, impoverished South Sudan when Murphy’s order was issued and have since been held at a US military base in Djibouti.

While accusing the administration of "flagrantly unlawful conduct" that is “exposing thousands to the risk of torture or death”, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, author of the dissent, said, “The government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone anywhere without notice or an opportunity to be heard.”

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) welcomes SC's decision

DHS praised the Supreme Court’s decision, calling it a “victory for the safety and security of the American people".

“If these activists judges had their way, aliens who are so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won't take them back, including convicted murderers, child rapists and drug traffickers, would walk free on American streets. DHS can now execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them. Fire up the deportation planes,” DHS mentioned in a post on X.

(With inputs from AFP)