Appeals court rejects Trump third-country deportation policy

A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s policy allowing rapid deportations of migrants to countries where they have no ties, ruling that detainees must have notice and a meaningful chance to challenge removals to places where they fear persecution or torture.

The Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on Friday largely upheld a lower court order that found the Department of Homeland Security’s “third-country” removal policy unlawful. The decision is a setback for a major piece of President Trump’s immigration crackdown and could next be appealed to the Supreme Court.

“An individual’s right to contest removal to a country based on a fear of persecution in that country means little if one does not receive prior notice of the intended removal destination and a meaningful opportunity to contest that destination,” the appeals court panel wrote.

The case stems from a class-action lawsuit over what due process migrants are owed before the government sends them to nations other than their own. The policy has allowed U.S. officials to deport some migrants thousands of miles from their countries of origin, including people from Latin America sent to sub-Saharan Africa.

Under the DHS rules at issue, immigration officials could send detainees to a third country without notice if that country gave the State Department blanket assurances that deportees would not be persecuted or tortured. When such assurances were not provided, the policy instructed officials to give detainees some notice.

Writing for the three-judge panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Seth Aframe said migrants must be given a “meaningful” chance to raise safety concerns before removal, Al Jazeera reported. The court did overturn part of the lower court’s ruling on procedural grounds, involving whether officials must first try to deport migrants to countries where they have ties.

The ruling largely affirmed a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy, who has repeatedly criticized the administration’s third-country deportation campaign as violating deportees’ due process rights.

DHS General Counsel James Percival said on X late Friday that the policy remains in place for now. “The third country deportation policy continues, as the First Circuit’s ruling is not currently in effect,” he wrote. “If you claim fear in your home country, DHS has the right to send you elsewhere.”

Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the decision confirmed that “due process and the protections Congress enacted against persecution and torture cannot be circumvented by putting someone on a plane to a country that was never part of their removal proceedings”.

The Trump administration has reached third-country deportation agreements with more than 30 nations, including Liberia, CBS News reported. Al Jazeera, citing Third Country Deportation Watch, a tracker run by Refugees International and Human Rights First, reported that the United States has sent more than 25,000 migrants to at least 29 third countries, most often Mexico. CBS News, citing an advocacy group, reported that about 80% of more than 25,000 migrants deported under the policy were sent to Mexico.

CBS News reported this week on deportees flown to Liberia last month, including citizens of Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela, as well as people from other African countries. The migrants, who were living in a hotel, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not tell them they would be removed to Liberia and did not give them a chance to challenge deportation to West Africa.

“I’m concerned,” Honduran native Elvis Rodriguez Venturas told CBS News. “I feel far away, on the other side of the world.”

The program has already reached the Supreme Court twice, Al Jazeera reported. In 2025, the justices allowed the deportation of eight men, including nationals of Cuba, Myanmar and Vietnam, to South Sudan, a country the U.S. State Department advises against visiting because of “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”