June 23 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday it will allow the Trump administration to resume swift deportations of convicted criminals to “third countries,” even if they have no ties.
The high court’s decision temporarily lifts an injunction, issued in April by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts, that required the administration give those being deported “meaningful” advance notice before being sent to countries other than their own.
The Supreme Court’s order will remain in effect as the Trump administration appeals the case. President Donald Trump ordered the quick deportations of convicted criminals in an executive order immediately after taking office in January.
“Fire up the deportation planes,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement Monday as she called the ruling a “victory for the safety and security of the American people.”
“The Biden administration allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood our country and now the Trump administration can exercise its undisputed authority to remove these criminal illegal aliens and clean up this national security nightmare,” McLaughlin added. “DHS can now execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them.”
While the Supreme Court’s conservative-majority offered no explanation for its ruling, the three liberal judges dissented.
“I cannot join so gross an abuse of the court’s equitable discretion,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who accused the court of “rewarding lawlessness” by the Trump administration in violation of immigrants’ due process.
“In matters of life and death, it is best to proceed with caution,” Sotomayor warned. “Rather than allowing our lower court colleagues to manage this high-stakes litigation with the care and attention it plainly requires, this court now intervenes to grant the government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied.”
After Murphy’s preliminary injunction last month, the Trump administration attempted to deport seven men to their non-native South Sudan with less than 24 hours notice. Murphy halted the deportation flight and threatened to hold officials in criminal contempt.
The Trump administration denounced Murphy and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
“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,” the Department of Justice argued in May, as some countries refuse to take back their own citizens.
Despite Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court, other judges could continue to block third-country deportations on a case-by-case basis.
