Supreme Court Okays Migrant Deportation to South Sudan

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 that the Trump administration may deport eight migrants with violent criminal convictions to South Sudan, even though only one is originally from that country. This decision overturns lower court orders that had blocked the deportations and upholds the administration’s authority to send migrants to third countries where they may have no connections and face significant risks. The eight men, detained for weeks at a U.S. military base in Djibouti, come from Cuba, Laos, Myanmar, South Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, and South Sudan. Dissenting justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson warned the ruling exposes the migrants to potential torture or death. The Trump administration argued the deportations are necessary due to the severity of the crimes and home countries' refusal to accept the men. Advocacy groups and attorneys have raised serious concerns about the migrants’ safety in war-torn South Sudan.