Supreme Court Allows Third-Country Deportations

AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib

This isn't the final word on this topic but it's win for the Trump administration for the moment. Today the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could continue to deport illegal aliens to other countries when their home countries refuse to accept their return.

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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 Trump administration has used this as a solution for migrants from places like Cuba and Venezuela that refuse to allow illegal aliens to be returned. Other countries like India and China allow some repatriation but at a slow pace. So in those cases the Trump administration has been deporting people instead to a number of countries in Central and South America and some in Africa and Asia. A well-known example of this policy is the handling of Mahmoud Khalil who is likely to be deported to either Algeria or Syria once his lawsuits against various parties end.

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Today's ruling is temporary and the Court decided it would expedite the underlying case and hear arguments in December.

The one-page emergency ruling was unsigned and gave no vote count, as is typical in such cases. Although the justices cleared the way, for now, for the swift removals to continue, they also announced that the court would fast-track the case and hear oral arguments about it in December, setting up a final ruling on the issue next year...

On the line will be a hallmark of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, a policy of sending people to countries where they have no ties, including Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, Costa Rica, Honduras and the Central African Republic.

It almost goes without saying that the court's liberal Justices opposed the ruling, but DHS officials are celebrating today's outcome.

James Percival, the top lawyer at the Department of Homeland Security, celebrated the court’s ruling. In a statement, he called it a “victory.”

“A bad day for criminal illegals and open borders activists alike,” he said. “It’s not too late to get $3,000 and a flight home.” He ended his statement with a link to department instructions for immigrants on how to self-deport...

Some immigration and human rights experts have asserted that the third-country deportations may be part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to encourage undocumented immigrants to leave on their own, rather than face the fear of being sent to a country where they have no ties.

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Honestly, that may be what the administration was thinking. It likely makes things much easier for everyone if people just agree to leave. 

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.

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