The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday granted a Trump administration request to deport eight noncitizens to South Sudan, a country where they have no ties.
The high court stopped an order allowing the foreign nationals to appeal removals to “third countries” where they say they could be in danger of violence or harm.
They were initially headed to South Sudan in May when a federal judge in Massachusetts halted their flight. The migrants stopped on a naval base in Djibouti where they waited for an order from the court.
The Supreme Court said a lower court’s order halting the flight was “unenforceable.” On June 23, the court paused a ruling that would give them a chance to show they would face risk of torture if deported to a country other than their own.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan concurred with the conservative majority’s opinion.
“I do not see how a district court can compel compliance with an order that this court has stayed,” Kagan wrote.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority opinion. Sotomayor wrote the dissenting opinion in which she criticized the majority decision and the Trump administration.
“Today’s order clarifies one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial,” Sotomayor wrote.
