Deportation showdown tensions escalated Thursday after a Biden-appointed federal judge again ruled against President Trump’s third-country deportation policy, despite prior Supreme Court intervention. The Deportation Showdown now appears headed back to the high court for another review.
Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued an 81-page ruling finding the Department of Homeland Security’s process unlawful. He argued the policy violates due process because migrants are not given sufficient time to raise concerns about potential torture in third countries not listed in their removal orders. Murphy wrote that DHS’s deportation policy was “not fine nor is it legal.”
The Supreme Court previously stayed Murphy’s earlier injunction in a 6-3 order last June. A week later, the justices issued a rare 7-2 follow-up rebuking the judge after he attempted to enforce a related order involving six migrants bound for South Sudan. “Our June 23 order stayed the April 18 preliminary injunction in full. The May 21 remedial order cannot now be used to enforce an injunction that our stay rendered unenforceable,” the majority wrote.
The justices added they expected Murphy to “now conform [his] order to our previous stay and cease enforcing the April 18 injunction through the May 21 remedial order.” Justice Elena Kagan agreed, stating, “I do not see how a district court can compel compliance with an order that this Court has stayed.”
Solicitor General John Sauer previously called Murphy’s actions a “lawless act of defiance.” He warned the injunction forced the Executive Branch to house “dangerous criminal aliens at a military base in the Horn of Africa.”
Murphy stayed his latest ruling for 15 days to allow an appeal to the 1st Circuit, acknowledging the “importance” and “unusual history” of the case.
