The conservative-majority United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, September 29, once again removed restrictions on the deportation of undocumented immigrants to third countries, as sought by the Trump administration, and agreed to take up the case.
Over the objection of the three liberal justices on the nine-member bench, the Court granted a request from the Trump administration to suspend lower court rulings while the litigation proceeds.
December Hearing on the Merits
The justices will examine the substance of the case in December, including the legality of new directives issued in 2025 by the Department of Homeland Security on the matter.
In February, a Boston judge deemed those directives “illegal,” ruling that individuals facing deportation to a country other than their own must be able to invoke the risk of persecution or torture there.
That decision was upheld by an appeals court on September 18, prompting the Trump administration to urgently petition the Supreme Court to suspend it, at least temporarily.
“Substantial Logistical Problems”
The administration’s legal counsel, John Sauer, cited “substantial logistical problems” caused by the lower court ruling, which he said had forced the Department of Homeland Security to “cancel a flight to three distinct countries carrying 70 criminally convicted foreigners.”
He defended deportations to third countries as “an essential tool for removing certain foreigners, including some of the worst foreign criminals.”
The opposing side had urged the Supreme Court to reject the suspension request, arguing it “would not prevent deportations to third countries, but would simply require that they be carried out lawfully.”
“Neither Persecuted Nor Tortured”
Under the new Department of Homeland Security directives, such deportations are permitted on the sole condition that the country in question provides assurances that those expelled “will be neither persecuted nor tortured,” and that the US State Department deems those assurances “credible,” with no right of appeal.
The central question is whether “the government can, without notice, deport a person to the wrong country, or to a country where they will likely be persecuted or tortured,” Boston judge Brian Murphy explained in his February ruling.
He held that individuals facing deportation to a third country must be notified and then given a meaningful period to file an appeal under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
In the same case, the judge had suspended in 2025 the deportation of a group of immigrants, most of them nationals of Asian countries, to South Sudan, a impoverished nation gripped by conflict. But the Supreme Court, urgently petitioned by the Trump administration, authorized that deportation to South Sudan, where the immigrants in question arrived in July 2025.
Pressure on African Nations
According to an investigation published on September 21 by the journalism consortium Forbidden Stories, the US government has deported more than 25,000 people to third countries under secret agreements with 35 nations to receive them.
The investigation, conducted by 72 journalists from 23 media outlets across 15 countries, shows that the US government has allocated at least $410 million to be paid to host countries or to UN agencies facilitating the returns.
An AFP investigation in early 2026 also highlighted Washington’s pressure on African countries, including threats of tariffs, suspensions of visa issuance or cuts to aid, to compel them to accept deportees.
