Supreme Court allows third-country deportations for now : NPR

An Air Force Boeing C-19 USA used for expulsion flights is represented at Biggs Army Airfield in Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas in February 2025.

Justin Hamel / AFP via Getty Images

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Justin Hamel / AFP via Getty Images

The Supreme Court blocked a lower justice order on Monday which required 15 -day notice to individuals that the Trump administration tries to deport to countries other than their own.

The action of the high court, at least for the moment, has reversed the order of the lower court demanding that those who are expelled have enough time to contact their lawyers and present evidence that would show that their life would be in danger if it is expelled to certain countries.

The order focused on a flight carrying several men from various countries – including Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico – which was initially heading for South Sudan, but found itself in the country of East Africa in Djibouti in order to give men time to challenge their final destination. The US government says that men are violent criminals, recognized as guilty of crimes including murder, sexual assault, abduction and qualified theft, and said they were not worth staying in the United States

But judge Brian Murphy of the US District Court of the Massachusetts district last month said that people should always obtain a so-called interview with “credible fear” in their mother tongue to be able to challenge to be sent to a country they are not from. He said people were to get at least 15 days to challenge their deportations.

The ordinance of the Supreme Court who is not signed on Monday arouses this decision while the legal process continues before the lower courts.

In a burning dissent, the three Liberals of the Court accused the conservative majority of “rewarding anarchy”.

Writing for the three, judge Sonia Sotomayor said that “the government has clearly indicated in speech and feeling without constraint by law, free to expel anyone, anywhere without notice or an opportunity.”

Sotomayor said that the Trump administration had already acted “in violation of the” orders of the lower court without ambiguity, by piloting four non-citizens in Guantanamo Bay, and from there to El Salvador. “Following this,” she said, “the government withdrew six people in South Sudan, with a notice less than 4 pm” orders, “before even going to the Supreme Court.

“This is not the first time that the court has closed their eyes towards non-compliance, nor, I will be afraid, will it be the last,” she said.

Several migrants and agents of detention in the United States have waited for the court’s decision while living in an expedition container converted to an American military base in Djibouti, assaulted by high temperatures, exposure to malaria and proximity to “burns of burns”, which emit the Smog of the Burge Burge Burge and Human Waste.

The ordinance of the Supreme Court on Monday is the last example of his desire to authorize President Trump to accelerate deportations and to minimize the regular procedure, according to the assertion of the administration according to which it will be irreparably injured by the interventions of the lower courts while cases are entirely litigious through the call process – a process that can take months.

Accusations of “wreaking havoc”

US Solicitor General John Sauer, on May 27, asked the Supreme Court an immediate stay of Murphy’s order, saying that “wreaks havoc on the country’s return process”.

“The United States is faced with an illegal immigration crisis, largely because many deserving foreigners are often the most difficult to withdraw,” he wrote. Thanks to “sensitive diplomacy”, the United States had convinced third countries to accept men after its own country has refused, he said, but Murphy’s order prevents “unless the DHS will first satisfy a set of expensive procedures invented by the district court” to assess whether men could be tortured or persecuted in the country where they are sent.

Immigration lawyers told the Supreme Court that even criminals deserved a significant notice and an opportunity to be heard before being sent to a country with dangerous conditions where they could be tortured.

Lawyers of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Human Rights First, and the National Immigration Litigation Alliance say that men who should find themselves in South Sudan received notification only the day before their flight.

They also say that Mexico, for example, had previously accepted its own expelled citizens from the United States, suggesting that the Trump administration process to withdraw people to third-party countries is “intentionally punitive”. South Sudan is a politically unstable country in Africa and one of the poorest in the world.

Prioritize deportations

The strategy to count on other countries to admire American deportees is not new. But the Trump administration has prioritized priority for more countries to repatriate their citizens, notably from China, Venezuela and Cuba, in order to expel people in the United States more quickly

“And further on, the better, so they cannot come back through the border,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a meeting of the April cabinet.

The DHS policy requires that any expulsion be advised to know which country they are sent “and an opportunity for a rapid projection of any assertive fear of being tortured there”.

The arguments before the court focused on the duration of migrants to challenge their dismissal to a country. DHS says this process takes “minutes”, not weeks. In the case of the flight to South Sudan, the men obtained a notice of less than 24 hours. Immigration lawyers say so little time means that deportees have little hope of arguing a referral, especially if they do not speak English.