(Red State)—The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump another legal win Monday afternoon as the High Court issued an order staying a lower court injunction pending appeal.
The case is styled D.V.D. v. DHS and involves a challenge by illegal aliens over their removal from the U.S. to third countries. In April, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy entered a preliminary injunction ordering that:
prior to removing any alien to a third country, i.e., any country not explicitly provided for on the alien’s order of removal, Defendants must: (1) provide written notice to the alien—and the alien’s immigration counsel, if any—of the third country to which the alien may be removed, in a language the alien can understand; (2) provide meaningful opportunity for the alien to raise a fear of return for eligibility for CAT protections; (3) move to reopen the proceedings if the alien demonstrates “reasonablefear”; and (4) if the alien is not found to have demonstrated “reasonable fear,” providemeaningful opportunity, and a minimum of 15 days, for that alien to seek to move to reopenimmigration proceedings to challenge the potential third-country removal.
The administration appealed that order to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, where the matter remains pending, though the appellate court denied the government’s request for a stay of the lower court ruling pending appeal.
Subsequently, several individuals were removed by the administration to South Sudan — almost. Bear in mind, these weren’t just your average, run-of-the-mill illegal aliens. All of those involved have committed serious crimes and were subject to removal. The hang-up was that their own native countries didn’t want them back.
So, they were set to be removed to South Sudan, but U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy took issue with that removal while it was ongoing and ordered that they be kept in DHS custody and provided “a meaningful opportunity to assert claims for protection under the Convention Against Torture before initiating removal to a third country.” So they’ve been stuck, with DHS personnel in Djibouti since that time.
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