US appeals court rejects Trump bid to swiftly deport migrants to third countries

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration lost a bid on Friday to lift a judge's order barring it from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own including Libya and El Salvador without first hearing their concerns about their safety.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put on hold a judge's injunction that aimed to ensure migrants had an opportunity to raise claims they might be persecuted, tortured of killed if they are deported to countries not previously identified in their immigration proceedings.

The U.S. Department of Justice argued that the nationwide injunction U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued on April 18 has prevented the execution of perhaps thousands of pending deportation orders and has harmed President Donald Trump's ability to negotiate the removal of migrants to other countries.

The judge, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, issued that injunction after previously temporarily blocking the administration from fast-tracking such deportations of migrants who in some cases have legal protections preventing them from being sent back to their countries of origin.

But a three-judge panel on Friday said it had "concerns" with new guidance the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued governing such deportations and "the irreparable harm that will result from wrongful removals in this context."

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chris Reese)