Judge: ‘Third Country’ Deportation Is Unlawful

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration’s policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries” where they have no ties is unlawful and must be halted, in a case that has already reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy of Massachusetts agreed to pause his ruling for 15 days to allow the government time to appeal. Murphy noted that the Supreme Court previously sided with the administration by pausing an earlier version of his order, allowing a deportation flight carrying several migrants to continue to South Sudan, a country with which they had no connection.

“This case is about whether the government may, without notice, deport a person to the wrong country, or a country where he is likely to be persecuted or tortured, thereby depriving that person of the opportunity to seek protections to which he would be undisputedly entitled,” Murphy wrote.

Murphy said migrants challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s third-country deportation policy are entitled to meaningful notice and a chance to object before being removed. He concluded the policy effectively blocks legitimate challenges by carrying out removals before migrants can raise them.

“These are our laws,” Murphy wrote, adding that no person in the United States may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

The judge said the Trump administration has repeatedly violated or attempted to violate his orders. He cited an incident last March in which the Defense Department deported at least six people covered by the case to El Salvador and Mexico without providing the process required under a temporary restraining order. The Department of Homeland Security issued new third-country deportation guidance on March 30, two days after that order.

“The simple reality is that nobody knows the merits of any individual class member’s claim because (administration officials) are withholding the predicate fact: the country of removal,” Murphy wrote. He was nominated to the federal bench by Joe Biden.

Murphy also said the policy has targeted migrants who had been granted protection from being returned to their home countries because they feared torture or persecution. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said that eight men sent to South Sudan in May had U.S. criminal convictions and final orders of removal.

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