US to Seek Supreme Court Relief After Appeals Court Blocks Third-Country Deportations

The Trump administration will ask the US Supreme Court to intervene after a federal appeals court rejected a policy that allowed authorities to deport migrants rapidly to countries other than their own, Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday.

In a post on X, Blanche criticised the ruling, saying a federal appeals court had blocked "all third-country removals of illegal aliens" without giving the government a chance to respond. He described the policy as a legal and valuable tool for curbing illegal immigration, and said the administration would "immediately seek relief from the Supreme Court, which previously granted a stay in this very same case."

The decision was handed down on Friday by a three-judge panel of the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. The panel largely upheld a February ruling by a lower court that found the Department of Homeland Security's policy unlawful.

The case arose from a class action lawsuit brought by migrants who are subject to deportation orders. It has become a significant test of the due-process protections the government must provide before removing people to countries with which they have no connection.

According to Third Country Deportation Watch, a project run by Refugees International and Human Rights First, the administration has reached a series of agreements that have allowed it to send more than 25,000 migrants to at least 29 third countries, in many cases Mexico.