This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
On June 23, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court paused a lower court ruling to allow the Trump administration to deport people to third countries without the ability to argue that they would face torture. Specifically, a group of men being held at a military base in Djibouti will be sent to South Sudan while their case continues in court.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Justice Sotomayor said, “Apparently, the court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in farflung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a district court exceeded its remedial powers when it ordered the government to provide notice and process to which the plaintiffs are constitutionally and statutorily entitled. That use of discretion is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable.”
After the ruling, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said, “DHS can now execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them. Fire up the deportation planes.”
