US Supreme Court lets Trump resume third-country deportations ahead of December hearing

The US Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump's administration to continue third-country deportations while a legal challenge moves toward arguments scheduled for December. The unsigned emergency order temporarily halts a lower-court ruling that had paused the removals over due-process concerns. The case centres on whether immigrants can be sent to countries they may have no connection to, and whether they were given a meaningful chance to object on safety grounds.

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The court did not explain its decision and did not list how the justices voted. Three liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan - said they would have denied the administration's request. The appeal stems from a ruling by Judge Brian Murphy in Boston, who said immigrants must be given a "meaningful" opportunity to raise safety concerns before being removed to a third country.

The decision is significant because it keeps in place a practice that has become a central part of Trump's immigration agenda since his return to office in 2025. His administration has argued that third-country deportations are necessary when home countries will not accept deportees. The policy has drawn legal scrutiny because it can place people in countries where they may have limited ties and where the risks they face are disputed.

This is not the first time the Supreme Court has intervened in the issue. In June 2025, it issued another unsigned order allowing similar removals to proceed. That earlier decision cleared the way for eight men, including nationals of Cuba, Myanmar and Vietnam, to be deported to South Sudan.

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The US State Department advises against travel to South Sudan because of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict, underscoring why the destination of such removals has become a point of contention. The latest order also fits into a broader legal and political fight over the scale and methods of Trump's deportation drive. Trump campaigned on a pledge to carry out the "largest deportation operation in American history", and third-country removals have become one tool in that effort.

Rights groups have argued that the practice can undermine basic protections, while the administration has presented it as a way to enforce immigration law when other options are limited. What remains unclear is how the justices will rule when the case is heard in December and whether the temporary pause on the lower-court ruling will remain in place until then. The court's unsigned order leaves open the legal reasoning behind the decision and the extent of support for it among the justices.

For now, the administration can continue the removals while the underlying dispute over due process and safety objections continues.

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