Overview
- A federal appeals court found the third‑country removal policy unlawful for denying deportees meaningful process, but the Supreme Court allowed removals to keep going while it prepares to hear the case in December.
- Investigations and court records show the program moved roughly 25,000 people to countries that were neither the United States nor their home states using flights, contractors, and bilateral arrangements.
- Reporting documents cases where people with immigration‑judge protections were sent onward from transit states to places judges had barred, with Moussa Diawara saying he was sent from the U.S. to Ghana and then forced to Mali without money or ID.
- The Department of Homeland Security defends the removals on public‑safety grounds, says it received diplomatic assurances from receiving states, and attributes some flight paperwork errors to contractors or clerical mistakes.
- Critics including congressional Democrats and human‑rights groups warn the practice risks violating non‑refoulement obligations, damages diplomacy, and will likely produce more lawsuits and oversight actions.