The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave President Trump a temporary victory on a central piece of his mass deportation agenda, agreeing the administration can, for now, resume rapidly deporting immigrants to countries other than their own.<\/p>\n
Although the justices cleared the way for the policy to continue, they also announced that the court would fast-track the case and hear oral arguments about it in December, setting up a final ruling on the issue next year and a new test for presidential power at the court.<\/p>\n
The one-page emergency ruling was unsigned and gave no vote count, as is typical in such cases.<\/p>\n
On the line in December will be Mr. Trump\u2019s policy of sending people to countries where they have no ties, including nations that have faced allegations of human rights abuses. Among the countries migrants have been sent to are Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, Costa Rica, Honduras and the Central African Republic.<\/p>\n
The court\u2019s three liberal justices noted that they would have denied the government\u2019s request to resume the deportations.<\/p>\n
The justices asked the lawyers for the administration and the immigrants who challenged the policy to focus their briefing for the December argument on whether the lower court judge who had paused the swift deportations had the authority to do so, and whether the policy violated the Constitution and international protections against torture.<\/p>\n
James Percival, the top lawyer at the Department of Homeland Security, celebrated the court\u2019s ruling. In a statement, he called it a \u201cvictory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA bad day for criminal illegals and open borders activists alike,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not too late to get $3,000 and a flight home.\u201d He ended his statement with a link to department instructions for immigrants on how to self-deport.<\/p>\n
Trina A. Realmuto, a lawyer for the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and part of the team representing the immigrants, called the emergency decision \u201ca devastating result.\u201d The court, she said in a statement, \u201chas allowed the administration to resume sending people to third countries where they face persecution or torture.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she pointed out that the court had agreed to hear full argument in December, saying that Tuesday\u2019s decision \u201cdoes not decide that the policy is lawful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deportations had been blocked recently after a federal court ruled the administration could not deport migrants to third countries unless they were given an opportunity to contest their removals, including to voice concerns that they might be persecuted or tortured abroad.<\/p>\n
The justices\u2019 ruling means that the administration can, for now, continue its program and conduct rapid deportations including to countries like Equatorial Guinea, where U.S. deportees were hooded, bound and beaten<\/a> by the police, according to reporting by The New York Times.<\/p>\n The justices had weighed in previously on the administration\u2019s efforts to send immigrants to third countries.<\/p>\n In May 2025, the Trump administration asked the justices to step in and clear the way for third-country deportations after a federal judge<\/a> in Massachusetts temporarily blocked the administration from sending people to countries not their own \u2014 in that case South Sudan \u2014 without the chance to object.<\/p>\n In a one-paragraph ruling<\/a>, the court\u2019s conservatives allowed the administration to continue the deportations over the noted dissents of the three liberals.<\/p>\n Since then, the Trump administration has continued to deport immigrants under the program, including to authoritarian countries with histories of human rights abuses. So far, the administration has sent more than 25,000 people to third countries as part of its mass deportation efforts, according to a social media post by Mr. Percival.<\/p>\n Some immigration and human rights experts have asserted<\/a> that the third-country deportations may be part of a broader strategy<\/a> by the Trump administration to encourage undocumented immigrants to leave on their own, rather than face the fear of being sent to a country where they have no ties.<\/p>\n In his brief, Solicitor General D. John Sauer characterized the third-country deportation program as \u201can essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Sauer wrote that the appeals court ruling had \u201ccreated substantial logistical problems with ongoing removal operations,\u201d including canceled deportation flights and disrupted delicate diplomatic negotiations with other countries.<\/p>\n