US President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to permit it to deport migrants to countries other than their countries of origin without first allowing them to present concerns that they could face human rights violations.

The Justice Department submitted an emergency request after the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling late Wednesday that effectively halted the deportations.

The removals had continued after the Supreme Court previously ruled in favor of the administration on the issue more than a year ago.

US Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the administration’s chief attorney before the Supreme Court, argued that the latest ruling had caused significant practical difficulties for immigration authorities.

He said it had resulted in canceled flights, increased costs, possible diplomatic complications, and difficulties removing migrants considered dangerous criminals.

Sauer wrote that although delaying deportation could benefit some migrants, it would not serve the interests of the country.

The Supreme Court had previously considered the administration’s policy and allowed it to remain in effect despite objections from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The court later ruled in the administration’s favor again in a case involving a group of migrants who had spent several weeks detained at a US military facility in Djibouti.

The policy was introduced last year as part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration enforcement efforts.

A longstanding challenge for US administrations has been deporting migrants to countries that are unwilling to accept them, sometimes because of strained diplomatic relations with the US.

The Trump administration responded by sending some migrants to third countries, even when they had no personal or family connections there.

The policy attracted significant attention after immigrant advocacy organizations disclosed that a group of migrants who were originally supposed to be sent to South Sudan were instead being held in Djibouti.

The group included migrants from countries such as Cuba, Vietnam, and Laos, and they were reportedly detained in a converted shipping container.

Around 25,000 migrants have been deported under the policy.

The legal dispute centers on the Convention Against Torture, which the US Senate ratified in 1994.

The agreement generally prohibits deporting or extraditing people to countries where they could face torture.

However, the law does not clearly specify how the government must assess the risk of torture or what procedural protections migrants should receive before being removed.

In Thursday’s emergency filing, the administration asked the Supreme Court to immediately issue an “administrative” stay, which would allow deportation flights to resume.

The Justice Department said it had already canceled flights because of the lower court’s ruling and had removed nearly 150 migrants from flights scheduled to take them to at least four different countries.

The Supreme Court instructed the immigrant rights organizations challenging the administration’s policy to respond to the request by Monday afternoon. (AA)