Supreme Court clears third-country deportations

Air Force Boeing C-17 used for deportation flights is seen at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas

(Image credit: Justin Hamel / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

The Supreme Court Monday allowed the Trump administration to at least temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries where they don't have citizenship or other ties, without notice or a chance to contest the destination. The court's three liberal justices dissented, saying the majority's brief, unsigned "emergency docket" order deprived migrants of congressionally mandated due process.

Who said what

The high court's conservative majority lifted an April order from U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston requiring the administration to give migrants facing deportation the time and opportunity to raise objections to being sent to third countries where they could be tortured. "The absence of any reasoning made it impossible to understand the majority's thinking" behind Monday's decision, The New York Times said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a sharp dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the ruling exposed "thousands to the risk of torture or death" and was"rewarding lawlessness" by halting an order the Trump administration has repeatedly defied. "The government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone anywhere without notice or an opportunity to be heard," she wrote.

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What next?

The Department of Homeland Security "can now execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them," agency spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Fire up the deportation planes." But federal judges "could continue to block third-country deportations in individual cases," Politico said. Monday night Murphy said the administration was still barred by a separate order from deporting six migrants in limbo in Djibouti to South Sudan, where DHS was sending them last month before the judge stepped in.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.