A US judge has blocked the Trump administration from quickly deporting thousands of migrants to countries other than their own without first providing them the opportunity to demonstrate that they fear being persecuted, tortured, or killed there.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued a preliminary injunction, the latest setback to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown that began on January 20.
The Boston-based judge last month temporarily banned the administration from fast-tracking deportations, hampering its ability to remove migrants who in certain circumstances have legal protections barring them from being deported back to their countries of origin.
The provisional injunction ordered on Friday will remain in force until the dispute is completed.
In court files, the administration has already stated that it will appeal Murphy’s judgement.
When deciding on challenges to government policies, federal judges frequently issue orders that apply nationally.
Stymied by such results, the Trump administration has already petitioned the United States Supreme Court to limit nationwide injunctions to merely those filing the case.
The ruling mandates the US Department of Homeland Security to provide individuals with a “meaningful opportunity” to seek legal relief from deportation before sending them to other nations.
“The Court has found it likely that these deportations have or will be wrongfully executed and that there has at least been no opportunity for Plaintiffs to demonstrate the substantial harms they might face,” wrote Murphy, an appointee of the former US president Joe Biden.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately reply to calls for comment.
According to Anwen Hughes of Human Rights First, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, many of those deported to third countries are refugees who have been granted protection from persecution or torture if they return to their home countries.
“The protections the court has ordered here are critical to make sure DHS does not turn around and ship them to a third country where they would face the same harms,” Hughes said.
In the fiscal year 2023, 1,769 people subject to final orders of removal were granted limited kinds of protection against return to countries where their lives or freedom would be jeopardised or where they faced the risk of torture.
In February, the US Department of Homeland Security directed immigration agents to evaluate cases of those granted such safeguards from deportation to their home countries to determine whether they may be re-detained and transported to a third country.
Immigrant rights organisations sued on behalf of a number of migrants trying to avoid deportation to newly specified locations.
Judge Murphy expressed worry that without a court order, the government may conduct deportations in violation of the Convention Against Torture.
“Even if such blanket assurances might, in some individual cases, satisfy due process, the March Guidance precludes any further review prior to removal,” he wrote. “Without meaningful review, the rights Congress has provided are little more than dead letters.”
