Trump administration asks Supreme Court to permit quick third-country deportations

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Thursday made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow for rapid third-country deportations of noncitizens to continue, after an appeals court blocked the policy last week.

In a brief, U.S. Solicitor D. John Sauer asked the high court to temporarily halt the appeals court’s order. The court panel struck down an administration policy that quickly removed noncitizens to countries where they do not have citizenship.

The appeals decision found that immigrants must have an opportunity to challenge their removal if they fear for their safety.

Sauer argued that a stay, or pause, is needed because the lower court’s decision to block the policy interferes in diplomatic relations with countries that have agreed to accept citizens that are not their own. 

“Third-country removals require careful negotiation with foreign governments, which are rarely enthusiastic about accepting foreign citizens (especially criminals), and often requires obtaining travel documents and devoting significant manpower to the staging of flights to protect government officers and flight crews,” he wrote. 

“Disruption of those plans thus imposes massive costs on the government and invariably requires new rounds of diplomatic engagement with countries who may be all the more skeptical of our removal efforts given the disruption,” Sauer said.

Third-country removals, deportations from the United States to a nation other than an immigrant’s home country, occur when the home country does not accept the person’s repatriation. 

This is the second time the Trump administration has taken an emergency request to the high court regarding third-country removals. The Supreme Court in June 2025 temporarily allowed for the removals to continue, before sending the case back to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 

Last week’s decision from the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit did not bar the Trump administration from carrying out removals to third countries but it provided for a longer process. 

It allowed immigration officers to still conduct third-country removals if they follow the proper procedures, such as adequate notice and an opportunity for an immigrant to raise a fear-based claim about being taken to that country of removal.

The Supreme Court ordered the parties to submit briefs by Monday.