Supreme Court lets Trump continue deporting people to 3rd countries while justices consider policy

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump's administration continue deporting people to countries other than their own for now, while the justices consider whether the policy is legal .

The high court said it will hear arguments on whether migrants must have a meaningful chance to object before being sent to countries where they have no ties.

The order halts an appeals court ruling for now.

Federal attorneys said the lower-court decision forced the cancellation of a deportation flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries.

The justices previously allowed the deportation flights, a core Trump administration policy, to temporarily continue when the case came before them last year.

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported some 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries, including Liberia and Guyana. The vast majority have been sent to Mexico.

Trump's Republican administration has said that it sends people with final deportation orders to third countries when they can't be returned to their homelands or their native countries won't accept them, including those who have criminal convictions. Those governments provide assurances that people won't be persecuted or tortured, federal attorneys said.

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