Judge Elevates to Injunction Level a Ban on Fast-Track Deportations to Third Countries

Federal District Court Judge Brian Murphy followed his 28 March 2025 temporary restraining order with a memorandum and an injunction to block Donald Trump’s regime from carrying out fast-track deportations of people to countries with which they have no relationship.

The injunction has no specific expiration date like a TRO. It will stay in place while the case works its way through federal District Court. It is nationwide. It certifies a class, so it applies  to anyone federal authorities seek to deport under a final removal order, not only to a few original plaintiffs.

Murphy wrote:

In short, the Government expressed no concern that deportations in violation of the Convention Against Torture could be occurring immediately and regularly in the days until the preliminary injunction; the Court does not share the same disregard for probable due process violations protected by the Constitution and enumerated in both statute and treaty.

His order went on to say:

Defendants argue that the United States may send a deportable alien to a country not of their origin, not where an immigration judge has ordered, where they may be immediately tortured and killed, without providing that person any opportunity to tell the deporting authorities that they face grave danger or death because of such a deportation. All nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Assistant Solicitor General of the United States, Congress, common sense, basic decency, and this Court all disagree.

and

The Court finds it likely that Defendants have applied and will continue to apply the alleged policy of removing aliens to third countries without notice and an opportunity to be heard on fear-based claims—in other words, without due process. Defendants have repeatedly argued that they have no obligation to provide any process whatsoever when newly designating a third country for removal. Defendants’ own avowed position and the numerous declarations Plaintiffs have provided substantiate both the prior and future use of Defendants’ policy of providing no notice prior to third-country removal.

Here, the threatened harm is clear and simple: persecution, torture, and death. It is hard to imagine harm more irreparable.

Murphy’s order stipulates that federal officers must “provide written notice” to all immigrants targeted for such deportation and their attorneys. The notice must reveal the proposed destination, offer a “meaningful opportunity” to convey fears of what may occur in the destination country under the torture convention, and an opportunity with at least a 15 day grace period “to seek to move to reopen immigration proceedings to challenge the potential third-country removal.”

The lawsuit Murphy is hearing challenges an 18 February 2025 directive which told officers to review cases of people who had been released from detention, and consider re-arresting them for deportation to third countries.

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