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

The Department of Homeland Security has at times carried out third-country deportations without telling detainees where they are being taken until they are in transit.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight.

Lindsey Wasson/AP

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.