In a major win for the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, the Supreme Court on Monday authorized the deportation of certain illegal immigrants to “third countries,” overturning a lower-court injunction that had halted the removals. “With this decision, DHS can finally exercise its undisputed authority to deport criminal illegal aliens—who are not wanted in their home country—to third countries that have agreed to accept them,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement. The order follows a decision by a far-left judge that had left U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and eight criminal migrants stranded in Djibouti.
The 6-3 ruling stayed a lower court injunction that had blocked the removals, with left-wing Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting. The case involved eight migrants convicted of serious crimes who challenged their deportations after being transferred to Sudan. They claimed they were unlawfully sent to countries not listed in their original removal orders.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy had previously blocked their deportations, requiring that the immigrants remain in U.S. custody until undergoing a “reasonable fear interview” to assess potential persecution. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that Murphy’s decision obstructed immigration enforcement and delayed the deportation of “some of the worst of the worst illegal aliens.”