The Trump administration petitioned the Supreme Court Tuesday to overturn a lower court order blocking deportations of criminal migrants to South Sudan, and other so-called “third countries,” without adequate due process.
“This case addresses the government’s ability to remove some of the worst of the worst illegal immigrants,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the emergency appeal to the high court. “The United States is facing a crisis of illegal immigration, in no small part because many aliens most deserving of removal are often the hardest to remove.”
US District Judge Brian Murphy, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, blocked the Trump administration in March from deporting migrants to countries where they do not originate from – “third countries” – without first offering the targets for deportation written notice and a chance to object to their removal.
Last week, Murphy determined that the administration “unquestionably” violated his court order when it put eight migrants with violent criminal convictions onto a flight to war-torn South Sudan — and may have committed criminal contempt.
“This Court should stay the district court’s injunction,” Sauer asked the Supreme Court. “The Court should also enter an immediate administrative stay of the district court’s injunction pending its consideration of this application.”
Sauer argued that securing third countries, such as South Sudan, to accept “some of the most undesirable aliens” is a delicate process – which is being thwarted by lower courts.
The process “requires sensitive diplomacy, which involves negotiation and the balancing of other foreign-policy interests,” the solicitor general wrote, noting that “until recently, those efforts were working.”
“Just last week, the government was in the process of removing a group of criminal aliens who had been in the country for years or decades after receiving final orders of removal, despite having committed horrific crimes,” Sauer continued. “These aliens include one who was convicted of sexually abusing a child victim for the better part of a decade, beginning when the victim was seven years old. Another was convicted of sexually abusing a mentally handicapped woman with the mental capacity of a three-year-old. At least two others were convicted of murder.”
“All these aliens have already received extensive legal process. All were tried and convicted in a criminal court, with all the process and protections afforded to criminal defendants. All were adjudicated removable by an immigration judge. A single federal district court, however, has stalled these efforts nationwide.”
Sauer further charged that Murphy’s ruling usurps the president’s “authority over immigration policy” and “disrupts sensitive diplomatic, foreign-policy, and national-security efforts.”
In a separate filing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Murphy on Friday that his order has already caused “significant and irreparable” harm to US foreign policy.
The eight migrants Murphy prevented the Trump administration from sending to South Sudan are currently being held in Djibouti, a small country on the Horn of Africa where the US has a military base.
Murphy claims the men – whom the White House has described as “monstrous and barbaric” – were not given a “meaningful opportunity” to object that the deportation could put them in danger.
Trump has cut deals with several third countries during his second term, including El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama, to take in deported migrants that can’t be sent back to their home countries.
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