Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow third-country deportations to resume

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to resume deporting migrants to countries where they have no ties.

President Trump has increasingly relied on the practice, called third-country removals, in his aggressive immigration crackdown. His administration has signed agreements to send deportees to countries across the globe, many in Africa.

For months, the flights have proceeded after the Supreme Court sided with the president at an earlier stage in the case.

The administration is bringing the case back to the justices after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1 st Circuit has once again ordered the flights to stop without giving migrants a better opportunity to raise claims they’ll be tortured. It’s the latest ruling in the monthslong legal challenge backed by immigration groups.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wants the justices to immediately lift the ruling until they can hear the administration’s appeal. He said the ruling is causing “chaos” and already forced DHS to cancel a flight to three countries carrying 70 people with criminal convictions.

“The unexpected springing-back of district court’s order has, this Office is informed,” Sauer wrote, “created substantial logistical problems with ongoing removal operations—including the cancellation of flights—and led to added expense, potential diplomatic issues, and the inability to remove dangerous criminals.”

The case heads to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who by default handles emergency matters arising from the 1 st Circuit. She ordered the plaintiffs respond in writing by Monday afternoon. Jackson could act alone or refer the case to the full court for a vote.

Since retaking office, the Trump administration has sought the Supreme Court’s emergency intervention more than three dozen times after lower judges have blocked aspects of the president’s agenda. The justices are still mulling their ruling in a separate emergency case, which concerns DHS’s desire to overhaul a key immigration database in time for the midterms.

Last year, the administration brought the battle over third-country removals to the Supreme Court at an earlier stage in the legal challenge. The court at that time lifted a judge’s temporary block on the flights over the dissents of the liberal justices. Days later, the court again ruled in favor of Trump, rejecting the judge’s insistence that a deportation flight to South Sudan had defied him.

The Supreme Court’s orders have effectively enabled the deportations to continue since last summer.

The high court is now being asked to consider the final ruling from the judge, Brian Murphy, an appointee of former President Biden who serves in Boston. The 1 st Circuit upheld it last week. Late Wednesday, it clarified that meant the administration had to stop the flights and couldn’t pursue plans to deport a Peruvian man to the Central African Republic.

“The district court has now tripled down, entering final judgment in favor of respondents and awarding substantially the same relief on substantially the same grounds,” Sauer wrote.

Murphy’s ruling found DHS must provide migrants certain procedures so they can raise a claim that they will be tortured if deported to the third country. The Trump administration says it only will deport them to countries that have “credibly assured” Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it will not persecute them.