A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to resume the deportation of immigrants to countries they have no ties to.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That is, for now. The order from the court wasn't signed. It did not explain the court's reasoning. But it cleared the way for third-country removals while the Supreme Court prepares to hear the case.
MARTÍNEZ: Here's NPR's Linda Kenyon to help explain this to us. So, Linda, tell us more about third-country removals. What are they exactly?
LINDA KENYON, BYLINE: Well, yeah. They are a very big piece of the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up deportations. So they allow the government to deport people whose home countries will not accept them and then send them to third-party countries. Now, the Trump administration has agreements with dozens of countries to take these immigrants to places like Mexico, Rwanda and South Sudan. The government argues that third-country deportations are, quote, "an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens."
The Trump administration also said that the countries with which the U.S. government has made deportation deals have said they would not mistreat these migrants. The general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, James Percival - he applauded the court, saying that this was, quote, "a bad day for criminal illegals and open-borders activists alike."
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So that's what the Trump administration is saying. What about immigration advocates? What are they saying?
KENYON: Well, they are saying that this policy causes irreparable harm to immigrants. And the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which is representing the migrants facing deportation, says that these immigrants have, quote, "faced prolonged and arbitrary detention, beatings and sexual assault" and "disappearance." And they also say that there is the possibility that they would be sent back to their home countries, where they would face persecution.
Now, I would also say that there are four unnamed immigrants who initially challenged these third-party deportations. And the lead plaintiff says that he suffers from severe mental illness and fears that he will be sent to a country where he will not receive any treatment. Also, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston - he ordered a pause to the deportations earlier this year, and he said that they violate due process rights, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit largely upheld that ruling.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, so that pause on these deportations was unpaused by the Supreme Court.
KENYON: Yes. That's what yesterday's ruling did. But it also asked both sides to argue whether lower courts had the jurisdiction to rule on the issue and order nationwide relief from these deportations. And it also questioned whether the Trump policy is legal or whether it violated the Due Process Clause or conventions against torture. It's important to note, by the way, that while the ruling was not further elaborated, the three liberal justices on the court did say they would've kept the limits on these deportations in place until the full court takes up the case.
MARTÍNEZ: So when's the court going to look at this again?
KENYON: The court begins its new session in October. It will take up the full arguments in this case in December, as the justices try to determine whether the deportations are legal. Previously, the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority recognized President Trump does have substantial authority over immigration policy.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Linda Kenyon. Thank you very much.
KENYON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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