Resettlement of refugees is the crucial ongoing challenge
High Court affirmation of the federal government's executive power over border protection laws including offshore detention and processing is welcome and reassuring. It underpins the border security regime established by the Coalition under Tony Abbott and maintained by Malcolm Turnbull. These policies - derided and attacked by critics from their inception - have halted the flow of asylum-seeker boats and ended the illegal people-smuggling trade. They have prevented tens of thousands of people from taking risky voyages and being detained, allowed at least 10 detention centres to be emptied and closed, saved hundreds of lives and freed the immigration system to accept record levels of refugees in orderly processes. Despite this record of success against the odds, refugee advocates and Greens politicians still campaign to have the policies weakened. The Rudd Labor government tried that in 2008 and only succeeded in re-starting an exploitative, dangerous, chaotic and unfair trade in human misery. 
The case on behalf of a Bangladeshi asylum-seeker should be the end of the legal challenges and protests. This is an emotional issue because it means 255 refugees and asylum-seekers and their children, who were detained on Nauru and brought to Australia for medical treatment, including childbirth, are now slotted to be returned to the Pacific island.We cannot allow our immigration laws to be gamed. Every person who subverts our system to gain residency effectively prevents the resettlement of another refugee waiting to be selected on the basis of need. "Our borders are secure," Malcolm Turnbull told parliament yesterday. "The line has to be drawn somewhere and it is drawn at our border." Sarah Hanson-Young, on the other hand, spoke of "torture". Mr Turnbull must stay strong. Europe is showing us the alternative path - a social, economic and humanitarian disaster. Still, the pressing priority is to find third country options for those on Manus Island and Nauru. Australia cannot rest easily until all those asylum-seekers and refugees for whom we are responsible either return home or are safely resettled elsewhere.