by Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Staff
(Worthy News) – The Supreme Court on Monday granted a major victory to President Donald Trump, allowing his administration to resume deporting illegal immigrants to so-called third countries–nations where the deportees have no prior connection. The court’s unsigned order temporarily lifted a lower court injunction that had blocked the removals.
The decision, which came in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D., drew a sharp divide on the bench. The court’s conservative majority backed the administration’s request, while Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning that the ruling could place migrants at risk of torture or death.
“In matters of life and death, it is best to proceed with caution,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, calling the decision a “gross abuse of the Court’s equitable discretion.”
The case centers on migrants who have been ordered removed from the U.S. but whose home countries refuse to accept them. U.S. law permits their deportation to a willing third country. A federal district court judge in Boston had required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide written notice of the destination country and grant migrants time to raise objections based on potential persecution or torture. That ruling was put on hold by the Supreme Court.
The Trump administration argued that such requirements interfered with the president’s authority over immigration and foreign policy. “DHS can now execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them,” said agency spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, calling the court’s action “a victory for the safety and security of the American people.”
The administration cited sensitive diplomacy in arranging deportations to third countries and said delays were hampering efforts to remove serious criminals, including individuals convicted of murder, sexual assault, and other violent crimes. Officials pointed to a recent case in which eight migrants, some with serious criminal records, were bound for South Sudan before a federal judge intervened mid-flight.
Critics, including the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, argued that the Supreme Court’s decision strips migrants of essential due-process protections. “The order strips away critical due process protections that have been protecting our class members from torture and death,” said the group’s executive director, Trina Realmuto.
The administration’s plans to deport migrants to countries like South Sudan, which the U.S. State Department deems dangerous for most Americans, sparked fierce legal battles. In May, a plane carrying migrants with criminal convictions was diverted to Djibouti after a judge halted the removals. The migrants have since been housed in makeshift detention quarters near a U.S. military base as legal proceedings continue.
While the Supreme Court’s order allows deportations to proceed in the short term, the broader legal questions regarding third-country removals remain unresolved and will continue to be addressed in lower courts. The administration has signaled it intends to move swiftly to act on the decision.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a sweeping series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley on Monday, targeting what it described as Hezbollah sites used for rocket launches and the production and storage of strategic weapons. The attacks marked one of the most extensive Israeli operations in Lebanon in months, killing at least three Hezbollah operatives in the past 24 hours, according to the military.
Residents on Luzon Island, the largest and most populated island of the Philippines, assessed the damage early Monday after a sleepless night when Super Typhoon Fung-wong, locally known as Uwan, killed at least two people and injured several others.
More than 50 prominent Christian leaders are calling on President Trump to directly confront Syria’s new president about the ongoing persecution of religious minorities when the two leaders meet Monday at the White House, marking a historic first for U.S.-Syria relations.
In a decisive break from Democratic obstruction that has paralyzed the federal government for over a month, the U.S. Senate on Sunday night voted 60-40 to advance legislation ending the record-breaking 40-day government shutdown, marking a significant victory for Republican fiscal discipline and President Donald Trump’s healthcare reform agenda.
A group of Hamas fighters trapped inside tunnels on the Israeli-controlled side of the Rafah ceasefire line have vowed not to surrender to Israeli forces, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced Sunday, in a move that could jeopardize the fragile month-old ceasefire in Gaza.
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered an extraordinary 2,700-year-old pottery fragment inscribed with Assyrian cuneiform near the Temple Mount — the first written evidence of direct contact between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah ever discovered in the city. The find, announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), offers striking confirmation of the biblical narrative of King Hezekiah’s resistance to Assyrian domination recorded in II Kings 18.
Iranian officials are warning of imminent water rationing—and even the potential evacuation of Tehran—as the nation faces its worst drought in nearly a century.