The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume, for now, deporting migrants to countries that are not named in their removal orders.
The brief order gave no reasoning. The court said it will hear full arguments in December on whether the policy is legal, whether it violates due process or anti-torture conventions, and whether lower courts had the power to issue nationwide relief.
The administration says it has used third-country removals to send tens of thousands of noncitizens to Mexico and to countries in Africa and Latin America after their home countries refused to take them. Solicitor General John Sauer called it "an essential tool" for removing serious criminals.
Lawyers for the migrants told the court that people removed without meaningful notice have faced prolonged detention, beatings, sexual assault and disappearance, harms they say "cannot be undone." US District Judge Brian Murphy had blocked the policy on due process grounds.
This is the third time the justices have overridden Murphy on these deportations. The court's conservative majority has repeatedly sided with the president on border authority, including a 6-3 ruling last summer on ending temporary protected status.