Supreme Court Greenlights Trump Admin Deportations To Third Countries
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered two major wins for President Donald J. Trump this week, siding with his administration on both immigration enforcement and foreign aid spending.
On Monday, the Court voted 6–3 to lift a lower court injunction that had blocked the administration from deporting certain migrants to third countries without prior notice. The ruling allows the president to continue his immigration crackdown without judicial interference, despite the objections of activist judges in lower courts.
The case centered on a group of migrants who argued that they should remain in U.S. custody while awaiting a “reasonable fear interview” before removal to third nations such as South Sudan, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, a Boston-based appointee of the left, had previously sided with the migrants, ruling that the Trump administration must hold deportees in U.S. custody until they were given more opportunity to present asylum claims.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer pushed back, arguing that Murphy’s ruling tied the government’s hands, blocking deportations of “some of the worst of the worst illegal aliens.” The Supreme Court majority agreed, reversing Murphy’s decision and granting the administration freedom to resume transfers.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, maintaining their long record of opposing the Trump administration’s enforcement efforts.
This marks the second significant victory for President Trump in just days. On Friday, the Court also ruled 6–3 in favor of his decision to withhold more than $4 billion in foreign aid through a rarely used executive maneuver known as a “pocket rescission.”
In that case, left-wing nonprofits—including the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, Journalism Development Network, Center for Victims of Torture, and the Global Health Council—had challenged the president’s authority after he moved to cancel billions in funding for USAID and State Department programs. The justices halted a lower court ruling that had forced the administration to release the money, finding that the executive branch’s authority over foreign affairs outweighed the plaintiffs’ objections.
President Trump’s use of the “pocket rescission” tactic—employed for the first time in nearly 50 years—ensures that funds earmarked for questionable overseas programs will instead remain under his administration’s control. Much of the funding had been set aside for foreign governments and organizations now suing to force taxpayer money back into their coffers.
Together, the rulings underscore a pattern: the Supreme Court is increasingly siding with constitutional executive authority and against activist attempts to undermine the president’s agenda. For President Trump, they represent two decisive victories in his ongoing battles to secure America’s borders and safeguard American tax dollars.