Supreme Court allows Trump to restart swift deportations
WASHINGTON—A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to restart swift removals of migrants to countries other than their homelands, lifting for now a court order requiring they get a chance to challenge the deportations.
The high court majority did not detail its reasoning in the brief order, as is typical on its emergency docket.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the other two liberal justices, issued a scathing dissent.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin suggested third-country deportations could restart soon. “Fire up the deportation planes,” she said in a statement, calling the decision “a victory for the safety and security of the American people.”
The court action came after immigration officials put eight people on a plane to South Sudan, though they later diverted to an American naval base in Djibouti after a judge stepped in.
The migrants from countries including Myanmar, Vietnam and Cuba had been convicted of serious crimes in the United States, and immigration officials have said they were unable to return them quickly to their home countries.
Push back
Their attorneys continued to press for a court order blocking their removal to South Sudan until they have a chance to talk with lawyers and raise concerns of “imprisonment, torture and even death there,” lawyer Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, wrote.
The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally.
