What Happened?

If you or someone you know has been ordered deported, the U.S. government can send that person to a country that isn’t theirs, and the Supreme Court is letting that continue while it decides whether it’s legal. More than 25,000 people had been sent to these “third countries” as of September, under deals with more than 30 nations, according to two advocacy groups, Refugees International and Human Rights First, cited in a Congressional Research Service report and a Legis1 review of the policy. ​

Congress’s research office says the government is using this power far more than in the past. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hasn’t published its own totals, though agency records obtained by the Deportation Data Project show more than 16,000 such removals through August, Al Jazeera reported.

Why Does it Matter to Me?

Even people a U.S. judge has protected from being sent home can be sent somewhere else. In February 2025, DHS told officers to consider third-country removal for people who had won protection because they would likely be persecuted or tortured in their home country, and for people let out of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

Under a July 2025 ICE memo, what happens next depends on the destination:

  • The State Department trusts the country’s promises: ICE can remove the person with no further steps.
  • No trusted promises: ICE gives written notice naming the country and generally waits 24 hours, or as little as six hours in urgent cases if the person can reach a lawyer.
  • The person says they’re afraid: ICE doesn’t ask, so the person has to speak up. A federal immigration officer then decides whether harm there is more likely than not.

Both Sides, Now

The Trump administration says the policy fills a real gap. DHS General Counsel James Percival has called third-country removals an “essential public safety tool,” arguing that some countries refuse to take their own citizens back and that the law gives DHS only about six months to hold someone it can’t deport, Good Morning America reported.

Critics point to what happened after some removals. A Human Rights Watch report documented beatings, sexual abuse and other mistreatment of Venezuelans the U.S. sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison in March and April 2025. In a June 2025 dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the government had removed six people to South Sudan with less than 16 hours’ notice, NPR reported. So far, the fight has played out in the courts rather than in Congress.

What Happens Next?

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in *Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D*. on Wednesday, Dec. 9, after the immigrants’ lawyers file their brief by Monday, Nov. 16. The justices will decide whether a lower court could throw out the policy and whether the policy itself breaks immigration law, the Constitution or the ban on sending people where they’d be tortured.

Congress could step in, too. The research office lists options ranging from writing the July 2025 memo into law to requiring more safeguards or reports to Congress on these deals.

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