Supreme Court Hands Trump a Major Victory and Reversal on Third-Country Deportations of Immigrants

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume third-country deportations of immigrants to countries other than their own while a legal challenge proceeds.

The justices also agreed to hear the case in December, when they will consider whether the policy's legal.

The decision follows an order and judgment issued on 25 February 2026 by the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Legal journalist Chris Geidner reported that lower courts had found the administration's third-country removals policy violated federal law. The Supreme Court has now stayed that district court ruling.

Supreme Court Grants the Government's Stay Request

The order grants the government's application for a stay, suspending the effect of the Massachusetts court's order and judgment. This allows removals under the challenged policy to resume while the Supreme Court considers the dispute.

The case is Department of Homeland Security, et al. v D.V.D., et al. According to the order, the application was presented to Justice Jackson, who referred it to the court.

The justices also treated the application as a petition for a writ of certiorari and granted that petition, agreeing to hear the case.

The decision therefore addresses both the government's request to pause the lower court ruling and whether the Supreme Court will hear the case. It leaves the questions set out for argument unresolved.

Geidner reported that the decision would permit deportations for at least several more months. The order ties the stay's end to the Supreme Court's judgment being sent down, rather than setting a fixed expiry date in December.

Supreme Court Decision Affects Third-Country Removals

According to The New York Times, the administration may now resume rapid deportations to countries including Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Honduras and the Central African Republic. These are removals to countries other than the deportees' own.

The newspaper also reported that deportees in Equatorial Guinea have been beaten by police. That account concerns the treatment of people sent there, but the Supreme Court order makes no finding about those reported beatings.

The order immediately suspends the district court's ruling while the legal proceedings continue. Whether the guidance governing those removals is unlawful remains among the questions the justices have agreed to examine. Permission to resume the policy during that review does not settle the challenge to it.

Supreme Court Sets Out Questions for December

The court directed the parties to address whether the district court had jurisdiction over the respondents' claims. It also asked whether that court had authority to enter classwide declaratory relief and APA vacatur under 8 USC §1252(f)(1).

Those questions cover both whether the district court could hear the dispute and the scope of relief it could order. Another question concerns whether the government's guidance on third-country removals is unlawful under 8 USC §1231(b), the Due Process Clause, or FARRA/CAT and its implementing regulations.

The order also allows the government to raise other questions it considers appropriate to resolving the case. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson would have denied the application for a stay, the order records. It provides no explanation of their position.

The court instructed its clerk to establish a briefing schedule that would allow the case to be argued during the December 2026 argument session. The order states, 'The stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.'