US Supreme Court lets Trump resume third-country deportations

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump's administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first giving them a chance to show the harms they may face, backing a tool used in his immigration crackdown. The justices granted the Justice Department's request to put on hold Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy's ruling that the Department of Homeland Security's policy to remove migrants to so-called third countries is unlawful, while the administration appeals the case to the Supreme Court.

Human rights groups say more than 25,000 migrants have been deported to 29 countries under the policy introduced last year, with the vast majority sent to Mexico. The policy is one of several measures the administration has taken in pursuit of Trump's goal of mass deportation. President Donald Trump has pushed a sweeping immigration crackdown since returning to office last year, including third-country deportations.

The administration has carried out removals to South Sudan, which the US State Department advises Americans to avoid because of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict risks, as well as Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, the Central African Republic and other countries. The Supreme Court earlier sided with the administration in the case by suspending a preliminary order issued by Murphy that had halted the removals. In a further win for the administration, the court later lifted limits the judge had imposed to protect a group of men from being sent to South Sudan.

The case began in 2025 after the Department of Homeland Security moved to step up deportations of migrants who cannot be returned to any country listed on their deportation orders. The policy allowed migrants to be swiftly removed without notice to third countries that had given credible diplomatic assurances they would not persecute or torture the individuals. For countries that have not provided such assurances, the source text is incomplete. The policy says deportees would be told their destination, and US authorities would assess the risk of persecution or torture only if an individual raises such fear on their own.

Immigrant rights groups brought a class-action lawsuit for migrants seeking to block removal to third countries without notice and a chance to describe the harm they could face. In February, Murphy ruled that the policy violates immigration law procedures and due process protections under the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment. Due process generally requires the government to give notice and an opportunity for a hearing before taking certain adverse actions. " Murphy and critics of the administration said the policy is also targeting migrants who had been granted legal protection from being sent back to their home countries.

The policy has resulted in deportees being unlawfully transferred by third countries back to their home countries from which the US had already granted The plaintiffs said in a court filing that some migrants have been denied protection, while others have been beaten, sexually assaulted, detained or have disappeared. " The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld most of the judge's ruling on September 18. The case has been heavily contested since it began, with Murphy finding that the administration "repeatedly violated, or attempted to violate" his orders.

Murphy in 2025 found that the administration had violated another order he issued requiring additional steps before trying to send a group of migrants to South Sudan. More than a dozen UN human rights experts wrote to the US government urging a halt to policies they said on Monday were putting migrants at heightened risk of abuse, including torture and persecution, by deporting them to third countries. They said at gravest risk are children, women, persons with disabilities, victims of trafficking, LGBT persons and human rights defenders. The filing said stateless people and others in extremely vulnerable situations were included, without individual case documentation.

Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; editing by Will Dunham. 9441 mobile.