The Supreme Court on Tuesday removed the final obstacle standing between the Trump administration and its third-country deportation policy, granting an emergency request from the Justice Department to block a lower court ruling that had shut the program down, according to NBC News. The justices also agreed to hear oral arguments in December on the legality of the policy itself.
The unsigned order means Immigration and Customs Enforcement can resume sending certain illegal aliens to countries where they have no ties — nations like South Sudan, Eswatini, and Rwanda — while the legal fight plays out. The court's three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, saying they would have denied the government's request for emergency relief.
The case traces back to a February ruling from a federal district judge who held that immigration authorities must give deportees more due process before removing them to so-called third countries, a decision largely upheld by a federal appeals court earlier this month. Those courts said migrants are entitled to notice and the opportunity to challenge their removals before officers attempt to send them to a nation that is not their own.
The Trump administration argued those rulings hamstrung the Department of Homeland Security from efficiently removing aliens, including those with criminal records. Under a March 2025 policy, officials can send deportees to third countries without notifying them of the destination if those nations provide blanket assurances that the migrants will not be persecuted or tortured.
Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival wasted no time celebrating the win on X, calling it DHS's second Supreme Court victory in less than a week. "A bad day for criminal illegals and open borders activists alike. It's not too late to get $3,000 and a flight home," Percival wrote, according to NBC News. He added: "DHS's third country removal policy is back in effect."
The numbers behind the policy are staggering. Roughly 15,000 people were deported to third countries in 2025, according to the Migration Policy Institute, with Mexico receiving the majority. Since Trump's second term began in January 2025, thousands have been sent to South Sudan, Eswatini, and Rwanda.
The Supreme Court already intervened in this fight once before, allowing the policy to move forward after lower courts blocked it at an earlier stage, then clarifying that its decision applied to eight men the government wanted to send to South Sudan. Tuesday's order goes further, putting the policy back in full effect nationwide while the justices prepare to hear arguments on whether it violates federal law, the Constitution's Due Process Clause, or federal regulations.
The December arguments will be a defining test for the administration's immigration enforcement machinery, but for now the message from the high court is unmistakable: the deportation flights can keep rolling while the Left's lawyers argue their case.
Our Take
Three liberal justices wanted to keep the brakes on deportations. Three. That's how close this came to another court-ordered shutdown of a program that is already working — a program that has sent thousands of criminal aliens out of this country since January 2025.
Notice what the lower courts actually demanded: that illegal aliens be given notice and a chance to challenge their removal to a third country before the plane takes off. Not a trial. Not a hearing before an immigration judge on whether they should be here at all. Just more process for people who crossed our border illegally and, in some cases, have criminal records.
The Trump administration's position is simple and correct. If a country is willing to take these people and has assured us they won't be tortured, the United States does not owe a foreign national who broke our laws an advance itinerary of his deportation flight. Due process is not a travel advisory.
Percival's message — "It's not too late to get $3,000 and a flight home" — is the most honest thing any government official has said about immigration in years. Self-deport. Take the money. Skip the courtroom circus funded by open-borders activists who have never had to live next to the consequences of their own ideology.
The December arguments will decide whether a handful of federal judges can keep running immigration policy from the bench. Until then, the flights resume. Patriots should be watching which justices stand with the law and which stand with the lawyers.
