US Supreme Court allows Trump administration to resume third-country deportations

The US Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration may resume deporting immigrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to argue against removal on humanitarian grounds. The court's six conservative justices temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that had required advance notice so migrants could raise fears of persecution before being sent to a third country.

As is customary with emergency orders, the justices gave no explanation for their decision. The court's three liberal members — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented. The order takes effect immediately while the Supreme Court prepares to hear full oral arguments on the underlying dispute in December. This marks the second time the court has sided with the administration on third-country deportations.

Attorney General Todd Blanche welcomed the ruling on social media, calling the policy lawful and a critical enforcement tool, and noting that, unlike the lower court, the Supreme Court had waited to hear arguments from both sides before deciding.

Thousands already deported

According to Third Country Deportation Watch, a project run by Refugees International and Human Rights First, the administration has struck agreements with multiple countries that have enabled it to deport more than 25,000 immigrants to at least 29 nations across Latin America, Central Asia, the Caribbean and Africa. Some deportees have been sent to countries considered dangerous, including the Central African Republic, which faces unrest and militia instability, and South Sudan, where a humanitarian crisis is underway amid political and economic collapse.

Human rights advocates have criticized the policy, saying it leaves immigrants in precarious and stressful circumstances. Lawyers representing migrants argue their clients have been denied a meaningful opportunity to raise fear-based claims before removal. Government lawyers counter that individual claims are unnecessary because the receiving countries have already agreed not to persecute or torture deportees. Before Tuesday's order, two lower courts had separately ruled in favor of the immigrants.