The Trump administration can resume deporting certain migrants to countries where they are not citizens for the time being, while the justices hear arguments and make a final ruling on the policy, a divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling is a temporary victory for a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda and sets up a major Supreme Court argument in December over the controversial policy.
The justices said they will review a lower-court ruling that found the policy violates the due-process rights of the migrants during the term that begins on Oct. 5. The Trump administration asked the high court to immediately pause the ruling last week.
The majority in the brief unsigned opinion did not give a rationale for lifting that block. The ruling came over the objections of the court’s three liberal justices, who did not write a dissent.
A Boston-based appeals court found in September that the policy fails to give migrants sufficient notice and an opportunity to claim fear of torture or persecution in the countries where they are sent.
Since February of last year, the Department of Homeland Security has sent more than 25,000 migrants to third countries, mostly in Latin America and Africa, according to court records.
Administration officials say third-country deportations are the only way to remove the most difficult-to-deport immigrants, including violent criminals who have committed rapes and murders.
Those immigrants have final removal orders from U.S. immigration judges, but many are protected by federal law from being sent back to home countries where they are likely to face persecution. Others cannot be returned because their home countries refuse to accept them.
The administration wrote in its filing with the high court that the pause on the policy had “created substantial logistical problems with ongoing removal operations — including the cancellation of flights — and led to added expense, potential diplomatic issues, and the inability to remove dangerous criminals.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche applauded the Supreme Court ruling in a post on X.
“This is [an] entirely lawful and a critical tool for immigration enforcement,” Blanche wrote.
The plaintiffs challenging the policy say that significant harm can come to immigrants, many of them not criminals, after being sent to countries they have no connection to.
“The Supreme Court has allowed the administration to resume sending people to third countries where they face persecution or torture,” said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which helped bring the lawsuit. “That is a devastating result for people who may be put on a plane without notice or an opportunity to raise a protection claim.”
The case has wound its way through the courts since Trump implemented the policy shortly after taking office last year. After lower courts blocked the policy, the Supreme Court intervened, allowing the policy to move forward while the cases were litigated in lower court.
David Nakamura contributed to this report.
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