The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to resume deporting immigrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to show the harm they might face, strengthening tools the administration has used to expedite deportations as part of its immigration crackdown.
The justices granted the Justice Department’s request to stay Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s ruling that the Department of Homeland Security’s policy of excluding so-called third-country immigration is illegal, and the administration will appeal the issue to the Supreme Court.
More than 25,000 migrants were forcibly returned to 29 countries under the policy implemented last year, the majority to Mexico, according to human rights groups.
The policy is one of many steps the administration has taken to achieve President Trump’s goal of mass deportations. Since returning to office last year, the Republican president has made a sweeping crackdown on immigration one of his top priorities.
The administration is conducting third-country deportations to politically unstable South Sudan, which the U.S. State Department urges Americans to avoid due to the risk of crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict, as well as Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, and the Central African Republic.
The Supreme Court previously sided with the administration in a legal challenge, blocking Murphy’s preliminary order halting evictions early in the case. In a further victory for the regime, the Supreme Court later lifted restrictions that judges had imposed to protect the group of men from extradition to South Sudan.
The case began in 2025 after the Department of Homeland Security moved to step up deportations of immigrants who cannot be returned to the countries listed in their deportation orders.
The policy provided that migrants could be quickly deported without notification to third countries that had provided credible diplomatic assurances that they would not persecute or torture migrants. For countries that do not provide such guarantees, deportees would be informed of their destination, and U.S. authorities would assess the possibility of persecution or torture only if the individual had caused such fear himself.
Immigrant rights groups have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of immigrant groups seeking a chance to stop their unannounced deportations to third countries and claim damages they may face.
Murphy ruled in February that the policy violated immigration law and due process protections under the Fifth Amendment. Due process typically requires the government to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard before taking certain adverse actions.
In an emergency petition to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said deportation to a third country is “an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including the worst criminal aliens.”
But both Mr. Murphy and his administration’s critics said the policy also targeted immigrants who had legal protection from being sent back to their home countries.
Under the policy, deportees are illegally returned by third countries to their home countries where the U.S. already granted protection, while others are beaten, sexually assaulted, detained or even disappeared, the plaintiffs said in court filings.
The plaintiffs said the administration ignored “the grave harm caused by forcibly returning thousands of people, many of whom have lived in the United States for years, many with no criminal records, to third countries, ignoring the persecution and torture they face in those countries.”
On September 18, the Boston-based US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld most of the judge’s ruling.
The case has been hotly contested since it began, and included Murphy’s findings that the administration “repeatedly violated or attempted to violate” his orders. Murphy found in 2025 that his administration had violated another order he issued requiring additional measures before attempting to send groups of migrants to South Sudan.
More than a dozen United Nations human rights experts sent a letter to the U.S. government on Monday calling for an end to the policy of forcibly returning migrants to third countries, which they say increases the risk of torture, persecution and other ill-treatment.
“Those most at risk are children, women, people with disabilities, victims of human trafficking, LGBT people, human rights defenders, stateless persons and other extremely vulnerable groups,” they said, without documenting individual cases.
