Trump administration asks Supreme Court to revive third-country deportations

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to revive a policy allowing immigration officials to deport people to countries other than their own without first giving them notice or a chance to object, after lower courts ruled that the practice violated deportees’ due process rights.

In an emergency request, the Justice Department asked the court to pause a February 2026 order by a federal judge in Boston. An appeals court largely upheld that order last week. The rulings require officials to notify people facing removal to a country where they have no ties and give them an opportunity to challenge the move before deporting them.

Under the administration’s policy, officials can send detainees to third countries without those individual safeguards if the receiving countries have given blanket assurances that they will not persecute or torture the deportees. The administration says the court orders have disrupted removals: Justice Department lawyers said officials had to cancel a flight carrying 70 people to three third countries after the rulings.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court that the policy had enabled the removal of “thousands” of people in recent months and that “thousands more” were eligible. Some, he wrote, were people with criminal records whose home countries refused to accept them. Sauer also argued that the rulings “undermine our standing abroad” by disrupting negotiations with countries willing to receive deportees.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who handles emergency requests from the region that includes Massachusetts, gave lawyers for the immigrants challenging the policy until Monday afternoon to respond. Sauer also requested temporary relief while the court considers the appeal.

The Guardian reported that administration agreements have allowed more than 25,000 migrants to be deported to at least 29 third countries, citing Third Country Deportation Watch, a project run by Refugees International and Human Rights First. Many were sent to Mexico, the project said. Other destinations have included countries in Latin America, Central Asia, the Caribbean and Africa.

CBS News reported that immigrants targeted for third-country removal include people who won protections in U.S. immigration courts barring their return to their homelands, as well as detainees whose home countries limit or refuse U.S. deportations. CBS News interviewed migrants from Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela who were sent to Liberia last month. They said they received no advance notice or opportunity to challenge their deportation and described feeling stateless.

Officials have defended the policy. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on X that the appeals court had blocked an “entirely legal and invaluable tool to stem the tide of illegal immigration.” James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, rejected allegations that the removals were cruel, writing: “What is cruel is allowing criminal illegals who can’t be sent home to stay in our communities and victimize anew.” Human rights advocates, meanwhile, have criticized the policy and warned about the uncertainty faced by people sent to unfamiliar countries.

The Supreme Court has intervened in the same case before. In a divided decision last year, it allowed third-country deportations to resume while the legal challenge continued and lifted an earlier order requiring officials to let immigrants raise fears of torture or persecution before removal.