Jamaica accepts first flight of third-country deportations from US amid looming Supreme Court battle

Jamaica has started taking in migrants deported from the United States who are not Jamaican, with a first flight of 22 people touching down at Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport on Tuesday. The arrangement is part of President Donald Trump's policy of sending away migrants who say their own countries are too dangerous for them to go back to. It arrives as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on whether the practice is lawful, according to Fox News.

Jamaica and the U. S. signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June that limits arrivals to 25 "per fortnight." According to NBC News, Jamaica's Ministry of National Security and Peace and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade issued a joint statement describing the scheme as a transit arrangement. The goal is to help the migrants return to their home nations or other receiving countries, with support from the International Organization for Migration. The statement adds that Jamaican taxpayers will not pay for it and that anyone with a criminal record will not be allowed to pass through.

Critics have sharply opposed the policy. The justices will take up its legality in December.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →