New migration laws may be challenged in the High Court by lawyers claiming they breach Australia's human rights obligations.
But human rights advocates have welcomed the government's agreement to release children from immigration detention before Christmas.
The government's bill to reinstate temporary protection visas passed parliament on Friday, after a deal was struck with Senate crossbenchers.
Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman and barrister Greg Barns said the High Court was likely to take a close look at the constitutionality of the new laws.
"There will be a challenge the moment a boat comes over the horizon," Mr Barns told AAP.
The case would likely revolve around an injunction against the immigration minister seeking to exercise his powers to send an asylum seeker home without regard to non-refoulement - a principle of law which protects persecution victims.
Mr Barns said the laws undermined the United Nations refugee convention, to which Australia is a signatory.
"It specifically allows the government to send people, who seek convention protection and who arrive by boat, back to the country they fled, irrespective of whether or not they would be persecuted on return," Mr Barns said.
"This effectively means Australia is abandoning its core obligation under the convention."
Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has concerns about the removal of judicial scrutiny, the expansion of power to arrest people at sea and send them to another country, as well as the fast track assessment process.
"This legislation strips away fundamental human rights in breach of Australia's international obligations," she said.
However, the commissioner welcomed the release of detained children.
"Having seen first-hand the damage that detention does to children, I am very eager to find out where they will end up," she said.
"Their release marks an important moment at which it is acknowledged that stopping the boats is not contingent on detaining children."
The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul said there were positives in the bill, but these were overshadowed by the "permanent uncertainty" given to asylum seekers.
Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office director Father Maurizio Pettena said children had been bartered to secure the bill.
"When a government lowers its policies to essentially bargaining vulnerable people for political gain, it raises questions about our morality as a people," he said.
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