Trump Administration Appeals to Supreme Court Over Third-Country Deportations

The Trump administration has appealed to the Supreme Court to reinstate a core immigration policy that allows for the deportation of individuals to countries other than their own. The emergency request came after a ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday that temporarily halted such deportations, throwing the policy into question.

Administration officials stated that the appeals court ruling, issued shortly before midnight, led to the cancellation of a flight carrying 70 individuals destined for three unnamed countries. They argued that the Supreme Court needed to intervene to "halt that chaos" and that the cancellation necessitated renewed diplomatic engagement with the affected nations.

Immigrant advocates had sought emergency relief from the appeals court, citing information from "multiple sources" that a deportation flight was scheduled for the following day from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Burundi, Rwanda, and the Central African Republic. Within hours of this request, the appeals court clarified its prior ruling against the policy, stating that an order allowing flights to continue during legal challenges was no longer in effect.

Attorney General Todd Blanche criticized the decision, calling it an order issued "in the dark of night" that deprived authorities of "an entirely legal and valuable tool to stem the tide of illegal immigration."

The Supreme Court had previously allowed these third-country deportation flights to continue on a temporary basis last year while the case was before them. The majority of individuals deported to third countries have been sent to Mexico, but the administration has also used a series of agreements to deport thousands to more than two dozen countries, including Liberia and Guyana.

Some individuals have been sent to countries they had never visited before, with reports of them being held against their will and facing safety risks, sometimes leaving them with little alternative but to return to the countries they had fled. This month, lawyers for two men deported to Equatorial Guinea reported that they were subjected to violence and held at gunpoint by police in a hotel converted into a detention center.

The Trump administration has contended that it sends individuals with final deportation orders to third countries when their homelands are unwilling or unable to accept them. Government attorneys have stated that these host countries provide assurances against persecution or torture.

James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, stated on X that 25,000 individuals unlawfully present in the U.S. have been deported to third countries, characterizing these actions as "an essential public safety tool."

The lower court's order does not entirely prohibit third-country deportations but requires the government to provide individuals with a meaningful opportunity to object to such removals.

The Trump administration's appeal to the Supreme Court argues that the appeals court's decision would create unreasonable delays and necessitate the renegotiation of agreements with foreign governments. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote that the order "would again obstruct DHS from efficiently removing aliens... by inordinately delaying third-country removal for any alien who voices a fear of persecution or torture in that country, no matter how frivolous or belated the claim."

The appeal comes as the Trump administration intensifies its immigration enforcement efforts, with pledges to deport millions of individuals residing in the United States without legal status.