Trump admin asks Supreme Court to lift deportation limits

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after stepping off Air Force One upon returning to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on July 19, 2026. Trump is returning to the White House from New Jersey, where he attended the 2026 World Cup Final. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday asked the US Supreme Court to lift restrictions on the deportations of undocumented immigrants to third countries.

Last week, a federal appeals court broadly upheld a lower court ruling restricting a Trump administration policy of deporting undocumented migrants to countries that are not their own, so-called “third-country removals.”

Late Wednesday, the appeals court lifted a stay on the initial ruling that had been in place as the appellate judges deliberated.

The US government is now urgently asking the Supreme Court to lift, until further notice, the limits on third-country removals, which it described as “an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens.”

Government counsel John Sauer said the lower court ruling “created substantial logistical problems” with removals.

Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States and has taken a number of actions aimed at speeding up deportations since returning to the White House.

The Trump administration has defended third-country deportations as necessary since the home nations of some of those who are targeted for removal sometimes refuse to accept them.

Congress has made it US policy not to deport people to countries where their lives would be in danger or they could be subject to torture.