US Supreme Court Lets Trump Administration Resume Deporting Migrants To Third Countries

The US Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own, pausing a lower court requirement that they be given an opportunity to object before being transferred.

The Tuesday order does not determine whether the policy is lawful. Instead, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in December on whether the administration can deport people to third countries under the circumstances at issue. According to AP, the order appears to have been backed by six justices, while Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have kept the lower court restrictions in place.

Supreme Court to examine Trump deportation policy

The Supreme Court’s decision temporarily lifts requirements imposed by a lower court that migrants receive a chance to challenge their removal before being sent to countries where they have no ties.

The justices said they will consider several questions, including whether the administration’s third-country deportation policy is lawful and whether lower courts had the authority to hear the case and issue a broad order blocking the policy. The court will also consider other questions the government deems appropriate.

The Trump administration had told the Supreme Court last week that the lower court order had forced it to cancel a deportation flight carrying about 70 people who were due to be sent to three countries.

AP reported that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has previously sided with the administration on its core deportation policy, allowing deportation flights to continue temporarily while legal challenges were being considered.

Administration says deportations are lawful

The Trump administration has defended sending migrants to third countries when they have final deportation orders but cannot be returned to their home countries or when their governments will not accept them.

Federal attorneys have said the policy can also cover people with criminal convictions. They argue that governments receiving the deportees provide assurances that the individuals will not be persecuted or tortured.

Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the policy in a social media post, calling it “an entirely lawful and critical tool for immigration enforcement”.

According to AP, the administration has deported about 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries through a series of agreements that are often kept secret. Those countries range from Liberia to Guyana, although the vast majority of the deportees have been sent to Mexico.

Lawyers warn of persecution and detention

Attorneys representing migrants have challenged the policy on the grounds that some people are being sent to countries where they have no connection and where they could face serious danger.

Some migrants have been imprisoned in countries they had never heard of before arriving there, while others have faced serious safety risks. Lawyers for the migrants have said some were ultimately left with little choice but to return to the countries they had originally fled.

The attorneys have also said that many of those deported have no criminal convictions and had been found to face risks of torture or persecution.

Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and one of the lawyers representing immigrants in the case, criticised Tuesday’s order.

“The order has now allowed the administration to resume sending people to third countries where they may face persecution, torture, imprisonment, or other grave danger,” said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and one of the lawyers representing immigrants in the case.

“But today’s order does not decide that the government’s policy is lawful,” she said in a statement. “The Court will hear that question on an expedited schedule.”

Case comes amid wider immigration crackdown

The Supreme Court case comes as the Trump administration pursues a broader immigration crackdown and has pledged to deport millions of people living in the United States illegally.

The order allows the policy to continue while the legal challenge moves forward. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in December, when it will consider whether the policy is lawful, whether lower courts had the authority to intervene and whether they could issue a sweeping block.