Topline
The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to continue deporting undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes to third-party countries like South Sudan, allowing the government to send migrants to countries they have no previous connection to.
Deported Venezuelan migrants arrive at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela … More
Key Facts
An unsigned order blocked a May decision from a lower court, which prevented the government from deporting migrants to third countries without giving them “meaningful opportunity” to challenge their deportation.
Lawyers for the government argued the migrants being sent to third countries were convicted of crimes, including robbery, murder and sexual assault, and that their home countries refused to take them back.
The court did not give a reason for its decision, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a 19-page opinion in dissent.
The high court’s two other liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined Sotomayor in dissenting.
Key Background
The court battle over deportations to third countries began in May, after the Trump administration tried to send at least eight migrants convicted of various crimes to South Sudan. The group reportedly included migrants from Cuba, Myanmar and Mexico. District Court Judge Murphy ruled last month the government had to give migrants facing deportation to a third country “meaningful” notice to protest this process if they fear persecution. Sotomayor’s dissent indicated this group was given less than 24 hours notice before their deportations to South Sudan began. The administration also tried to deport a group of 13 Laotian, Vietnamese, and Filipino migrants to Libya, where they would have arrived “in the midst of violence caused by opposition to their arrival,” Sotomayor wrote, citing reports from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Libya is controlled by two opposing governments, and Rubio stated in a sworn affidavit that both “publicly rejected the use of Libyan territory for accepting deportees.” A quick order by the district court halted the process.
What To Watch For
The original group of eight migrants the administration tried to deport to South Sudan were rerouted to Djibouti, a small African nation that hosts a large U.S. military base. The migrants are being housed in a facility made from a shipping container, alongside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers tasked with removing them from the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing earlier in June. It is unclear how soon the government will resume the process of deporting them to their original destination of South Sudan.
Crucial Quote
“By rewarding lawlessness, the Court once again undermines that foundational principle,” Sotomayor wrote. “Apparently, the Court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in farflung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a District Court exceeded its remedial powers when it ordered the Government to provide notice and process to which the plaintiffs are constitutionally and statutorily entitled.”
