Supreme Court lets Trump resume third-country migrant deportations

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first giving them a chance to show the harms they may face there — restoring a rapid-expulsion tool central to the president’s mass-deportation agenda.

The court granted the Justice Department’s emergency request to put on hold Boston U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s ruling that the Department of Homeland Security’s third-country removal policy is unlawful. The six conservative justices formed the majority; the three liberal justices dissented from letting deportations restart pending a final decision. The court will hear arguments in December. Murphy’s February ruling, largely upheld by the First Circuit on September 18, came in a class action by immigrant-rights groups arguing the policy violates immigration procedures and Fifth Amendment due process.

Human-rights tallies say more than 25,000 migrants have already been deported to 29 countries under the policy, most to Mexico, with others sent to South Sudan, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, the Central African Republic and elsewhere. The administration says third-country removals are “an essential tool” for people who cannot be returned to any country on their deportation order. Plaintiffs say the practice has also hit people who already won protection from being sent home, with some then unlawfully returned onward, beaten, sexually assaulted, detained or disappeared.

More than a dozen UN human-rights experts this week urged Washington to halt third-country deportations, warning of heightened risks of torture and persecution for children, women, people with disabilities, trafficking survivors and LGBT persons. For Canadian policymakers watching U.S. asylum cooperation and northern-border flows, the stay means the policy’s hard edge is back in force long before the merits are settled.

Sources: Supreme Court miscellaneous order (09/29/2026) — U.S. Supreme Court: https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/092926zr2_1a7d.pdf | Supreme Court to hear argument on third-party country deportations — SCOTUSblog: https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/09/supreme-court-to-hear-argument-on-trump-administrations-deportation-of-immigrants-to-third-party/ | SCOTUS sides with Trump administration in third-country deportations — NPR: https://www.npr.org/2026/09/30/nx-s1-5985237/scotus-sides-with-trump-administration-in-third-country-deportations