The Supreme Court paused an order from a lower court judge preventing the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens to so-called “third countries” that are willing to accept aliens from other nations.
The 6-3 Supreme Court ruling is a victory for the Trump administration, which previously had to allow illegal aliens the opportunity to contest their deportation to nations other than their country of origin. The ruling gives the administration the ability to deport those whose nations of origin are unwilling to accept them, potentially paving the way for thousands of deportations.
The decision comes after the Trump administration deported eight violent criminal illegal aliens, including Cuban and Vietnamese nationals, to South Sudan after the African nation agreed to accept them. The illegal aliens’ home nations were not willing to accept the criminals, whose crimes include homicide, kidnapping, and the sexual assault of children.
The deportation flight was quickly challenged in court, with one federal judge ruling that the Trump administration must maintain custody of the criminal illegal aliens in case their deportation to the African nation was found to be unlawful, also stating that illegal aliens must be given the opportunity to contest their removal to third countries.
The Trump administration called on the Supreme Court to weigh in on the case, while Solicitor General John Sauer asserted that the federal ruling exacerbated the illegal immigration crisis.
“The United States is facing a crisis of illegal immigration, in no small part because many aliens most deserving of removal are often the hardest to remove,” Sauer wrote in the appeal.
The ruling could also allow the Trump administration to deport one illegal alien, a convicted murderer named Alexander Alfredo Palacios Guevara, who received a special deportation protection preventing him from being sent back to his country of origin. The Salvadoran national, who also has a conviction for sexual abuse and is believed to be a member of the Surenos gang, is expected to be deported to a willing third country.
