On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Trump administration, immediately impacting the president’s deportation policies. The decision, along ideological lines, granted the administration’s request to stay a lower court injunction that had blocked deportations of individuals to third countries without prior notice. This ruling now allows deportations of criminal illegal aliens to countries such as El Salvador, Libya, and South Sudan. The court’s conservative justices formed the majority, while Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor criticized the majority for overriding lower courts, writing, “This Court now intervenes to grant the Government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied.” The case involved illegal immigrants challenging deportations to third countries—countries other than their nations of origin. Lawyers representing the migrants urged the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who had ordered a suspension of deportations to countries not explicitly named in deportation orders.
Judge Murphy, based in Boston, ruled that affected immigrants must remain in U.S. custody until they can undergo a “reasonable fear interview,” allowing them to express concerns about possible torture or persecution if returned. In appealing the case, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the ruling blocked the government from deporting “some of the worst of the worst illegal aliens,” noting these individuals were held at a U.S. base in Djibouti pending interviews. Last month, the Supreme Court also upheld the president’s authority to rescind temporary deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, and other countries.
