Supreme Court clears Trump to resume rapid third-country deportations while the policy’s legality remains unsettled

The Trump administration can once again quickly deport people to countries they may have no connection to. The Supreme Court let the administration resume the practice Tuesday, months before the justices decide whether the policy itself is legal.

The order temporarily removes lower court requirements that forced officials to let migrants object before sending them somewhere other than their home country. According to the Associated Press, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case in December.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have kept those protections in place. The administration can now continue using third-country deportations while the legal challenge works its way through the Court.

For now, the administration gets to move ahead

The Supreme Court did not rule Tuesday that the deportation policy is legal. Instead, it put the lower court restrictions on hold while the justices prepare to hear the case.

The Supreme Court docket shows that the justices will consider whether the government can carry out these removals and whether lower courts had the authority to impose the challenged restrictions. The Court will not hear those arguments until December, but the administration can restart the removals before then.

The lower court had required officials to let migrants raise concerns before sending them to a particular country. The administration said that requirement had already interfered with its deportation efforts, including forcing officials to cancel a flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries.

Attorney General Todd Blanche has called third-country removals a lawful and necessary part of immigration enforcement. Lawyers representing migrants argue that the policy could leave people facing persecution, imprisonment, or torture in another country before they have enough time to object.

Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, emphasized that Tuesday’s order was temporary. “Today’s order does not decide that the government’s policy is lawful,” Realmuto said in a statement the Associated Press published.

Some deportees can end up in countries they have never lived in

Third-country removals come into play when the government sends someone somewhere other than their country of origin. The administration says it uses the practice when people have final deportation orders but their home countries will not take them back, including when those governments refuse to accept them.

This is not a policy sitting on the sidelines while the courts debate it. According to the Associated Press, the administration has already deported about 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries under agreements officials have largely kept out of public view. The vast majority went to Mexico, while destinations have also included Liberia and Guyana.

Federal attorneys say countries accepting deportees promise not to persecute or torture them. Attorneys challenging the policy say those promises do not eliminate the danger, particularly for people sent somewhere they have no ties and little opportunity to challenge the destination beforehand.

The cases do not involve only people with criminal convictions. Lawyers for the migrants say some have no criminal convictions at all, while others face persecution or torture if the government sends them back to their home countries.

The next major decision comes in December, when the justices hear arguments over the policy itself. Until then, the lower court protections are off the table and the administration can continue sending people to third countries while the legal fight over those removals remains unresolved.

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