The Trump administration will face new requirements before it is allowed to deport people to countries other than their nation of origin, an appeals court ruled on Friday.
The ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, requires that immigrants facing deportation to so-called third countries be given more due process beforehand — “a meaningful opportunity” to raise fears of persecution or torture. In a 55-page opinion with no dissent, a three-judge panel from the court rejected arguments from the Trump administration that it receives “assurances” from foreign governments that deportees will not be persecuted or tortured and that such communications should be sufficient.
The administration’s current policy “conflicts” with laws and regulations that protect detainees from torture, the judges ruled, and added that they were rejecting an attempt by the Homeland Security Department to carve out an exception to those rules “from whole cloth.”
If the ruling remains in place, it will impose a substantial and time-consuming hurdle on Mr. Trump’s third-country deportation program. The practice of sending deportees to faraway and sometimes dangerous countries, often with just a few hours’ notice, has been one of the administration’s highest-profile attempts to create uncertainty for immigrants already in the United States.
The administration has sent migrants to nations including South Sudan, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea as part of the program. In interviews with The New York Times, some migrants deported to third countries have made harrowing allegations that they were abused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The Homeland Security Department has said detainees receive “comprehensive medical care” while in ICE custody, and denied that anyone has been beaten or tortured.
In March, the appeals panel temporarily blocked a ruling by Judge Brian E. Murphy of Massachusetts imposing the new requirements. Friday’s order lifts that block, putting most of the new legal hurdles to third-country deportations into place.
The administration can now appeal the ruling to a larger First Circuit panel or to the Supreme Court.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case already reached the Supreme Court last year, when the justices agreed to allow eight men who had been sent to Djibouti in violation of a preliminary order from Judge Murphy to be sent onward to South Sudan. That ruling dealt with the issue on a temporary basis, while litigation over it moved forward.
The appeals court on Friday struck down one of the requirements that Judge Murphy had attempted to impose on D.H.S. Judge Murphy would have required the department to prioritize deportees’ home countries as destinations, but the appeals court said that could not be legally mandated.
In a statement, Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the migrants who brought the lawsuit, called Friday’s ruling “a major victory for the basic principle that the government cannot deport people to an unknown country without first telling them where they are being sent and giving them a meaningful opportunity to explain why they would face persecution or torture there.”
The unanimous opinion was written by Judge Seth R. Aframe, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Also on the panel were Judge Jeffrey R. Howard, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, and Judge Lara E. Montecalvo, another appointee of Mr. Biden. Judge Murphy is also a Biden appointee.
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