Supreme Court upholds some expedited deportations

The high court on Thursday issued a 7-2 decision in favor of the Trump administration’s practice of moving people into expedited deportation without granting them hearings before a federal judge if they fail their initial asylum screenings. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.

What were the details of the case? Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam crossed the U.S. border with Mexico after fleeing Sri Lanka. Immigration officials did not accept his argument that as part of the Tamil minority he would face harm if he returned to his country of origin. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the opinion that Thuraissigiam’s case fell under the process created “for weeding out patently meritless claims and expeditiously removing the aliens making such claims from the country.” Alito noted that, in the past five years, more than three-quarters of asylum claimants passed their initial screening and qualified for a full review.

Dig deeper: Read Sophia Lee’s report on why asylum-seekers, attorneys, and judges find the “wait in Mexico” policy so frustrating.