The US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume third-country deportations, staying a lower-court ruling by Judge Brian Murphy in Boston that had paused the practice over due process violations. The order was unsigned, with no explanation or vote tally — though Justices Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kagan noted they would have denied the petition. Full oral arguments are scheduled for December. Third-country deportations involve sending immigrants not to their home countries but to nations they may have no connection to whatsoever. The practice has escalated dramatically since Trump's return to office, framed by officials as a workaround for home countries that refuse to accept deportees. The Department of Homeland Security has treated each successful removal as a policy victory. The scale is significant. At least 35 countries have signed agreements with the Trump administration to receive third-country nationals, according to Refugees International and Human Rights First. The groups estimate more than 25,000 people have been subjected to such deportations so far. Burundi became the latest signatory on Tuesday. Judge Murphy's original ruling held that immigrants must be given a "meaningful" chance to raise safety concerns before removal to third-party countries — a basic due process standard. His finding that some immigrants had been denied the opportunity to challenge their deportations strikes at the core constitutional question the Supreme Court has now twice declined to resolve on the merits, instead issuing emergency stays. The receiving countries raise their own alarm. In June 2025, the Court cleared the deportation of eight men — nationals of Cuba, Myanmar, and Vietnam — to South Sudan, a country the US State Department itself advises against visiting due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict. Advocates warn that some third-party countries have subsequently sent deportees back to the very places where they feared persecution or torture, completing a chain of refoulement. UN human rights experts wrote to the US government on Monday urging a halt, warning of heightened abuse risk for children, women, persons with disabilities, trafficking victims, LGBT individuals, and stateless persons. The administration's response has been to expand the program, not constrain it. The December hearing will determine whether the practice survives legal scrutiny. But the structural pattern is already clear: the executive acts, courts issue temporary stays, the Supreme Court lifts those stays on emergency petitions without addressing the merits, and the policy entrenches itself through accumulation of fact. By December, the number of deportees will be substantially higher than 25,000, making any reversal increasingly theoretical.
