President Donald Trump’s administration has petitioned the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to rescind a nationwide injunction preventing the US government from deporting individuals to countries from which they did not emigrate.
US District Judge Brian Murphy issued the nationwide injunction after he found the Department of Homeland Security to have violated an earlier order demanding that deportees be allowed to appeal deportations to countries other than their own.
Specifically, plaintiffs claimed that their deportation proceedings to South Sudan were executed within a timeframe that was too brief for them to raise concerns over being deported there.
Judge Murphy agreed, arguing in his injunction that deportees who raise concerns of “reasonable fear” regarding the country they are being deported to must have immigration proceedings reopened and the concerns investigated.
Attorney General Pam Bondi rejected Murphy’s order, claiming that “the conduct of our nation’s foreign policy cannot be directed by a single federal court judge.”
“DOJ has asked the Supreme Court to intervene to stop this insanity so that President Trump can continue to deport the worst of the worst illegal aliens,” continued AG Bondi. “We will continue to defend President Trump’s lawful authority to make America safe again.”
The DOJ’s SCOTUS petition comes shortly after the court rescinded another nationwide injunction preventing the Trump administration from halting Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans.
While SCOTUS’ decision is not definitive, it enables the Trump administration to suspend TPS for Venezuelans until the legality of such suspension is determined - which could become the same for the case at hand.
Trump heavily campaigned on strong immigration enforcement and policing to both detain illegal immigrants and deter future ones from unlawfully entering the US.
Trump declared a national emergency to enable the executive branch broader access to tools that can be used to curtail illegal immigration.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has since then led a major effort to effectively police the US’ borders not just to prevent illegal immigration, but also human trafficking, drug smuggling, and other transnational crimes.
As a result of Trump and Noem’s actions, illegal immigration has reached historic lows in recent weeks.
“Under President Donald Trump, our borders are more secure than ever in American history,” explained Noem. “Border Patrol encounters for the month of March were 7,181 total. Compare that to the ~160,000 average monthly encounters under Joe Biden.”
