In a court decision on Wednesday, a federal judge issued a resounding rebuke of a Trump administration policy that’s expanded the deportation of immigrants to “so-called ‘third countries’” where they have no ties.
The policy, which was detailed in Department of Homeland Security memos last year, allowed the administration to deport people to places other than their country of origin, with little notice. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled Wednesday that the policy was unlawful and failed to provide sufficient due process protections.
Murphy, a Biden appointee, determined the administration needed to try deporting people to other designated countries before pursuing removal to a “third country.” Additionally, if officials tried to deport someone to a third country, they would have to provide that person “meaningful notice” and an “opportunity to raise a country-specific claim against removal.”
“The Department of Homeland Security has adopted a policy whereby it may take people and drop them off in parts unknown—in so-called ‘third countries’—and, ‘as long as the Department doesn’t already know that there’s someone standing there waiting to shoot … that’s fine,’” Murphy wrote in his decision. “It is not fine, nor is it legal.”
Murphy paused his ruling for 15 days in order to give the administration an opportunity to appeal.
“The Supreme Court previously issued two separate emergency stays against Judge Brian Murphy in this case, and we are confident we will be vindicated again,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
“DHS must be allowed to execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them,” the spokesperson added.
DHS previously detailed its third-country deportation policy in a memo last March. It stated that people could be deported to third countries if the administration received credible “assurances” from those places that immigrants would not be “persecuted or tortured.” In a July memo, a federal official reportedly stated people could be deported to third countries with as a little as six hours notice even without these assurances, according to The Washington Post.
Since the start of Trump’s term, the administration has reached deportation agreements with countries, including El Salvador, Rwanda and Guatemala, according to The New York Times. Multiple countries that it has made such deals with have faced scrutiny for human rights abuses in the past, per The Intercept.
If the administration appeals this decision, the legal fight over it could potentially wind up in the Supreme Court.