A federal judge on Wednesday declared Homeland Security’s expansive policy letting him send illegal immigrants to so-called third countries is illegal, in a decision that could blow a hole in the president’s mass deportation efforts.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee and frequent legal opponent of President Trump, said DHS’ policy doesn’t give migrants enough chance to challenge their deportations when they’re sent to third countries where they have never lived.
“It is not fine, nor is it legal,” the judge wrote.
He stayed the effect of his ruling for 15 days to give the administration a chance to appeal.
Judge Murphy’s previous orders in the case have been blocked by the Supreme Court, and it’s likely this latest decision will race to the justices as well.
Third-country removals come when someone’s home country is unwilling to take him or her back or when a U.S. official has determined a migrant cannot be safely sent back.
They occurred in years past but were relatively rare.
The Trump administration, however, has made them a tentpole of its deportation policy, hoping to cut into the backlog of tens of thousands of people who have been ordered out of the country but who remain because of obstacles in their home nations.
Judge Murphy acknowledged the law allows for third-country removals but said the Constitution requires a fair chance for migrants to challenge the specific removal. He said DHS’ policy short-changes that.
He pointed to one of the plaintiffs, a Guatemalan man known in court documents by the initials OCG. He faced sexual violence in Guatemala, came to the U.S. illegally and was ordered deported, but the immigration judge said he couldn’t be sent there because of the chance he’d be victimized again.
So the U.S. sent him to a third country, Mexico, where he was in fact raped — then Mexico deported him to Guatemala anyway.
And the government “lied about it,” the judge scolded.
