Trump administration turns to Supreme Court as third-country
deportations are thrown into question
[September 25, 2026]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — A ruling to halt deportations of people to countries
other than their own threw a core immigration policy of the Trump
administration into question, at least temporarily, and prompted a
desperate appeal to the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The administration said the ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals came Wednesday just minutes before midnight, forcing the
cancellation of a flight with 70 people that was headed to three
countries. It said justices needed to step in to “halt that chaos” and
said the flight cancellation “required a new round of diplomatic
engagement with each of the three countries,” which it did not name.
Plaintiffs for immigrants sought emergency relief from the appeals court
Wednesday night, saying they heard from “multiple sources” that a
deportation flight was scheduled the next day from Alexandria,
Louisiana, to Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Republic.
Within hours of that request, the appeals court said it was clarifying a
ruling against the policy last week and said a previous order allowing
flights to continue while legal challenges play out was no longer in
effect.
Administration officials reacted furiously. Attorney General Todd
Blanche said the order “in the dark of night” robbed authorities of “an
entirely legal and valuable tool to stem the tide of illegal
immigration.”
The justices previously allowed the deportation flights to temporarily
continue when the case came before them last year.
The vast majority of people deported to countries other than their own
have been sent to Mexico, but under a series of often-secret agreements,
the administration has deported thousands of others to more than two
dozen countries, from Liberia to Guyana.
Some have found themselves in countries they’d never heard of before
their arrivals and held there against their will. Some also face serious
safety risks, and are left with little choice except to return to the
home countries they were fleeing.
This month, lawyers for two men deported to Equatorial Guinea said they
were beaten and held at gunpoint in a hotel-turned-detention center by
police who covered their heads with bags.
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The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 25,
2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)
Trump's Republican administration has said that it sends people with
final deportation orders to third countries when their homelands
won’t accept them or they can’t be returned there. Those governments
provide assurances that people won’t be persecuted or tortured,
attorneys said.
James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s general
counsel, said Wednesday on X that 25,000 people in the U.S.
illegally have been deported to third countries, calling those
deportations “an essential public safety tool.”
The lower court order doesn't completely prohibit third-country
deportations, but it requires the government give people a
meaningful chance to object.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to halt that
decision, arguing it would force unreasonable delays and the
reworking of agreements with foreign countries.
“The order below would again obstruct DHS from efficiently removing
aliens ... by inordinately delaying third-country removal for any
alien who voices a fear of persecution or torture in that country,
no matter how frivolous or belated the claim,” Solicitor General D.
John Sauer wrote.
The appeal comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Trump
administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who
are living in the United States illegally.
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