Supreme Court to weigh Trump admin's third-party country deportations of illegal immigrants

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in December over the Trump administration’s practice of deporting illegal immigrants to so-called third countries, or countries other than the illegal immigrant’s home country. 

In an unsigned order in late September, the court allowed the government to continue third-country deportations until they can weigh and rule on it. The case was brought forth to the Supreme Court by the Trump administration after a group of illegal immigrants with removal orders sued, per SCOTUSblog. 

The order asks parties to brief and argue questions of “(1) Whether the district court had jurisdiction over Respondents’ claims. (2) Whether the district court had authority to enter classwide declaratory relief and APA vacatur under 8 U.S.C. §1252(f)(1). (3) Whether the Government’s Guidance on third-country removals is unlawful under 8 U.S.C. §1231(b), the Due Process Clause, or FARRA/CAT and its implementing regulations. (4) Such other questions that the Government determines are appropriate for the proper disposition of the case.”

The dispute stems from a 2025 executive order from Trump directing DHS to take “all appropriate actions” to remove migrants with deportation orders. DHS issued internal guidance in the wake of the order, directing ICE to weigh whether those with deportation orders fearing a return to their home country due to the possibility of torture could be sent to other nations. 

A group of four illegal immigrants sued in March of 2025 over the order, saying they feared being sent to a country not identified in their removal orders. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts issued an order barring the government from removing illegal immigrants to third countries without written notice of the country they may be removed to, and requiring “meaningful opportunity” to challenge it. 

Solicitor General D. John Sauer went to the Supreme Court in May of 2025, asking that the order be paused. It was granted in June. The case has gone between courts in the year since, and on September 18, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit largely upheld Murphy’s February final judgment in favor of the migrants.

In going to the Supreme Court for the third time on the matter, Sauer argued that Murphy’s order had removed from the administration “an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens,” and that it “rests on the same fundamentally flawed legal premises as the previous rulings.”