Appellate Court Temporarily Allows Trump Administration’s Third-Country Deportations to Continue

A panel of appellate judges temporarily greenlit on Wednesday the Trump administration’s policy of deporting immigrants to countries they’re not from without the opportunity to challenge their removal.

The panel’s decision is a blow to immigrants who can’t be deported to their home countries because they have legal protections or their countries don’t have deportation agreements with the U.S.

Those third-country removals have become a more commonly used tactic in President Donald Trump’s second term, with the Department of Homeland Security at times carrying out such deportations without telling detainees where they are being taken until they are in transit.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, made up of two Biden appointees and one Trump appointee, issued a temporary stay blocking a lower court judge’s ruling on DHS’ handling of third-country deportations, which was set to go into effect Thursday. However, the appellate court did not flesh out its reasoning behind the decision, which is common for short-term, interim rulings.

Almost a year ago, DHS began carrying out speedy third-country removals based on deals the administration brokered with countries, mostly African nations, that the deportees wouldn’t be harmed.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued a ruling on Feb. 25 vacating the policy and lambasting the administration for its practices, while highlighting cases of immigrants given no notice before their deportations. These included an anonymous plaintiff, referred to as O.C.G.

“Defendants threw him on a bus to Mexico, where he had just been raped, and where he was quickly sent back to Guatemala, the place an immigration judge had just found he would likely be persecuted … and then Defendants lied about it,” Murphy wrote.

The Supreme Court twice greenlit the third-country removal process last year in shadow docket rulings.

The class-action lawsuit that prompted the current legal battle was filed by the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and Human Rights First.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The plaintiff groups declined to comment.