U.S. Supreme Court sides with Trump administration in third-country deportations
Migrants deported from the U.S. get off an airliner at the runway of the Juan SantamarΓa International Airport in Alajuela, Costa Rica, in April 2026. Ezequiel Becerra/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the administration to resume, for now, deportations of migrants to countries that are not identified in their removal orders, handing President Trump another victory in his aggressive immigration agenda.
The court also said it would take up the case for full oral argument in December.
The court's brief order granting the petition did not outline a reason for staying a lower-court order that blocked the third-country deportations. But it asked both sides to argue whether lower courts had the jurisdiction to rule on the issue and order nationwide relief, as well as whether the Trump policy is legal or whether it violated the due process clause or conventions against torture.
Immigration U.S. Supreme Court allows β for now β third-country deportations Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices the third-country deportation policy amounted to "an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens," in court papers earlier this month. The administration said it has used the policy to deport tens of thousands of noncitizens to Mexico and countries in Africa and Latin America after the migrants' home countries refused to accept them.
"While certain aliens may benefit from stalling their removal, the Nation does not," Sauer wrote in an emergency application Sept. 24.
The court's brief order on Tuesday noted that the three liberal justices objected to staying the order.
Africa 'We don't know what will happen to us': U.S. deportees in limbo in DRC The action by the high court marks the third time the justices have rejected efforts by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston to pause the deportations, which the judge said violate due process rights and fail to give detainees meaningful notice to raise arguments that they have credible fears of torture or abuse in the countries where they could be sent.
The National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which is representing migrants facing deportation, said in court papers that their clients are facing significant harms.
"The record shows that class members removed without meaningful notice or an opportunity to present country-specific protection claims have faced prolonged and arbitrary detention, beatings and sexual assault, disappearance, and chain refoulement to countries from which the United States had already granted them protection," wrote lawyer Trina Realmuto. "These harms cannot be undone."
The Department of Homeland Security said Murphy's rulings have created a logistical nightmare, including canceled flights, potential diplomatic clashes, and a lag in removing people convicted of assault and drug crimes.
Immigration The White House is deporting people to countries they're not from. Why? The administration argued that if a country has assured Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it will not engage in persecution or torture, that should be enough to deport a noncitizen to a country that's not their own.
The Supreme Court's conservative supermajority has recognized the president has substantial authority over the border. Last summer, in a 6-to-3 decision, the court ruled President Trump has sweeping power to end the temporary protected status program for people who can't return to their home countries because of wars and natural disasters.
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