SUPREME COURT ALLOWS TRUMP TO DEPORT MIGRANTS TO COUNTRIES THAT AREN'T THEIR HOMES, WITHOUT DUE PROCESS

Court majority’s action exposes “thousands to the risk of torture or death,”  says Justice Sonia Sotomayor

By G. A. McNeeley 

June 25, 2025 (Washington D.C.) — The Supreme Court has allowed The Trump Administration to restart the swift deportations of migrants to countries that aren't their homelands. They also lifted a court order that required them to give migrants a chance to challenge their deportations, according to PBS. 

Immigration officials had put eight people on a plane to South Sudan that was eventually diverted to a U.S. naval base in Djibouti, after U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy stepped in. 

Those migrants were convicted of serious crimes in the United States, but immigration officials said they weren't able to quickly return them to their home countries, according to PBS. But the ruling could apply to other deportees who are not criminals.

This case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by President Donald Trump’s Administration, which has promised to deport anyone who's living in the United States illegally. 

What Is The Supreme Court Doing With Murphy’s Court Order? 

The Supreme Court action halted a court order from Murphy, who decided that migrants must be given a chance to argue that deportation to a “third-party country” would put them in danger, even if they’ve exhausted their legal appeals, according to PBS. 

Murphy found that the deportations to South Sudan violated his order, so he told immigration authorities to allow people to raise those concerns through their lawyers. Immigration officials housed the migrants in a converted shipping container in Djibouti, where they and the officers guarding them faced rough conditions. 

In a separate case, four undocumented immigrants with deportation orders went to a federal court in Massachusetts, seeking to block their removal to a country not identified in those orders, according to SCOTUSblog. 

Murphy temporarily barred the government from deporting them without providing a written notice to the immigrants and their lawyers, giving them at least 10 days and a “meaningful opportunity” to express their fear of removal, and at least 15 days to seek to reopen their immigration proceedings if the government determines that they don’t meet their criteria. 

After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit declined to put Murphy’s order on hold, The Trump Administration came to the Supreme Court, and asked the justices to intervene. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that Murphy’s “judicially created procedures are currently wreaking havoc on the third-country removal process,” and disrupting “sensitive diplomatic, foreign-policy, and national-security efforts,” according to SCOTUSblog. 

In their response to The Trump Administration’s request, the immigrants urged the justices to leave Murphy’s order in place. They emphasized that his order doesn’t prevent the government from carrying out third-country removals, but that “it simply requires” them “to comply with the law when carrying” out those removals. 

The Supreme Court granted The Trump Administration’s request and put Murphy’s order on hold, while the government’s appeal moves forward, according to SCOTUSblog. 

The Supreme Court has sided with Trump in other immigration cases, by clearing the way for his administration to end temporary legal protections that could potentially affect nearly one million immigrants, according to PBS. 

What Is Homeland Security’s Role In All Of This? 

The dispute stems from guidance issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in response to an executive order signed by Trump that instructed the DHS to take “all appropriate actions” to remove noncitizens who are in the United States, according to SCOTUSblog. 

The DHS instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to determine whether immigrants who have been the subject of such orders, but haven’t been deported because of the possibility of being tortured in their home countries, could be sent to another country. This is a process known as third-country removal. 

The DHS also issued additional guidance that outlined a set of procedures for deporting immigrants to countries that aren’t specifically identified in their deportation orders, when those countries haven’t assured the federal government that the immigrants won’t face torture. The DHS said that immigrants must receive notice of their planned removal, so that they have the opportunity to “affirmatively express” fear that they will face torture. If necessary, the DHS must also conduct a screening to determine the likelihood that they will be tortured. 

The DHS has also praised The Supreme Court’s decision to support The Trump Administration as a legal victory in its efforts to remove what it describes as "the worst of the worst,” according to CBS-8. 

"The Supreme Court ruling is a victory for the safety and security of the American people,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “The Trump Administration can exercise its undisputed authority to remove these criminal illegal aliens and clean up this national security nightmare.” 

What Are The Experts Saying? 

In a 19-page dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that the court’s action exposes “thousands to the risk of torture or death,” according to PBS. 

Sotomayor complained that her colleagues in the majority had stepped in “to grant the Government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied” when it should have allowed the lower-court judges “to manage this high-stakes litigation with the care and attention it plainly requires,” according to SCOTUSblog. 

Sotomayor added that The Trump Administration isn’t entitled to the relief they received, because they failed to comply with the lower court’s orders. She mentioned that even if those orders were wrong, the government is still required to follow them while they’re in effect. 

Private Immigration Attorney Ian Seruelo, who chairs the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, explained the implications of this ruling. 

"ICE could technically just go straight to your house and pick you up and deport you,” Seruelo said, according to CBS-8. He added that “they will simply say we are enforcing this order of deportation and we will be deporting you to X country.” 

Seruelo added that deportation to a third-party country usually requires an arrangement between the U.S. and the receiving country, as well as due process for the individual being deported. CBS News reported that The Trump Administration has approached Costa Rica, Panama, and Rwanda about accepting migrants who aren’t their citizens. 

"So putting these people in the dark and simply, leaving them in a country that they are not familiar with, and especially if that country is undergoing some social upheaval, then it's really putting people's lives in danger," Seruelo said, according to CBS-8. 

Seruleo also warned that under this decision, migrants could face deportation to a third-party  country on the same day they're notified, leaving them with little to no time to consult legal representation. 

Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said that the ramifications of the “Supreme Court’s order will be horrifying,” according to PBS.