US judge blocks Trump administration from fast-tracking deportations

BOSTON (Reuters) -A federal judge on Friday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump's administration from deporting migrants to countries with which they had no relationship without giving them a chance to raise claims that they would face persecution or torture if sent there.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued a nationwide temporary restraining order designed to protect migrants subject to final orders of removal from being swiftly deported to countries other than those that had already been identified during immigration proceedings.

The Trump administration hours later appealed the decision, with a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson saying that "no unelected activist judge should be allowed to usurp executive power especially on matters of national security."

Murphy's decision came in a lawsuit filed by a group of migrants represented by immigrant rights advocates. The lawsuit challenged a policy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently adopted that is aimed at fast-tracking the deportations of thousands of migrants who had been released from detention.

That February 18 directive instructed officers to review all cases of all such individuals, including those who had complied with the terms of their release, for re-detention and removal to a third country.

Lawyers for the migrants argued the policy exposed an untold number of people to the risk of deportation to countries where they might face danger without providing them any notice or opportunity to present a fear-based claim.

Murphy, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, noted that under the Convention Against Torture, migrants had protections against being removed to countries where they face a likelihood of torture.

"If your position today is that we don't have to give them any notice, and we can send them to any country other than the country to which the immigration court has said no, that's a very surprising thing to hear the government say," he told a Justice Department attorney.

He barred the administration from deporting any individual from the United States to a country other than the one designated for removal in immigration proceedings without providing them written notice and a "meaningful opportunity" to submit a fear-based claim.

"We're relieved the judge saw the urgency of this situation both for our named plaintiffs and other similarly situated individuals," said Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the migrants at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Aurora Ellis, Rosalba O'Brien and Gerry Doyle)