WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
The US Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump's administration to continue deporting immigrants to countries they do not come from, as long as they cannot claim that they face risks in that third country.
The justices have overturned a court order requiring the government to give immigrants the opportunity to express a fear of torture or persecution in their assigned country while legal proceedings are ongoing. Boston District Judge Brian Murphy issued the order on April 18, Reuters reports.
Three liberal justices dissented, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the majority's decision, calling it a "gross abuse" of the court's discretion.
After the Department of Homeland Security began accelerating deportations to third countries in February, immigrant rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a group of migrants seeking to prevent their removal without notice and to determine the risks to them.
The administration has reached agreements with other countries, including Panama and Costa Rica, to house the migrants because some countries do not accept deportations from the United States. South Sudan, meanwhile, has suffered repeated waves of violence since gaining independence in 2011.
On May 21, Murphy found that authorities violated his order by ordering the process to send a group of migrants to politically unstable South Sudan, which the U.S. State Department says should not be traveled to “due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”
The White House has already attacked judges who have taken action against Trump’s policies that it considers illegal, calling Judge Murphy a “far-left activist” in a statement.
Justice Murphy said the Supreme Court, Congress, "common sense" and "basic decency" require that migrants be given due process.
The administration told the Supreme Court that its third-country policy is already consistent with due process and is essential to removing migrants who commit crimes, as their countries of origin are often unwilling to take them back.
In an urgent Supreme Court filing on May 27, the authorities said that all of the migrants bound for South Sudan had committed "heinous crimes" in the United States, including murder, arson and armed robbery.
