KLIK SAJA - The United States Supreme Court has officially cleared the path for President Donald Trump’s administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own—a move that further intensifies tensions surrounding immigration policies already under fire.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices overturned a lower court ruling that had required the government to provide migrants with a “meaningful opportunity” to explain the dangers they could face if deported to a third country.
The Court’s three liberal justices dissented sharply, calling the ruling a reward for lawlessness and an affront to constitutional protections.
The case centers on eight migrants from Myanmar, South Sudan, Cuba, Mexico, Laos, and Vietnam who were deported in May aboard a flight reportedly bound for South Sudan.
The Trump administration labeled them “the worst of the worst.”
US District Judge Brian Murphy, based in Boston and appointed by President Joe Biden, had previously ruled that the deportations violated his April order requiring the government to allow migrants a chance to argue they could face torture or death in third countries—even if their legal appeals had already failed.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson strongly condemned the unsigned majority opinion, calling it “a gross abuse of judicial power.”
“Apparently, the Court finds the idea of thousands suffering violence in far-off lands more acceptable than the remote possibility that a district court exceeded its authority by requiring the government to provide notice and due process guaranteed by law,” Sotomayor wrote. “That use of discretion is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable.”
The US Department of Homeland Security welcomed the ruling as “a victory for the safety and security of the American people.”
“Fire up the deportation planes,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
The Trump administration claims the eight migrants committed heinous crimes in the US, including murder, arson, and armed robbery. But their attorneys argued before the Supreme Court that many of the detainees had no criminal records at all.
The National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which represents the plaintiffs, called the Court’s decision “horrifying.” Executive Director Trina Realmuto warned the ruling places their clients at risk of “torture and death.”
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after a federal appeals court in Boston declined last month to block Judge Murphy’s initial order.
Murphy’s intervention forced the US government to temporarily detain the migrants in Djibouti, an East African country that hosts a major American military base.
