The US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own, temporarily blocking a lower-court order that had paused the practice over due process concerns.

The court's conservative majority granted the administration's emergency request in an unsigned order, as is typical for such petitions. No explanation was provided, and the justices' individual votes were not listed. The three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan — indicated they would have denied the request.

The court also announced it would hear full oral arguments in the case in December.

The ruling marks the third time the Supreme Court has rejected efforts by US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston to pause the deportations. Murphy had ruled that immigrants must be given a "meaningful" chance to raise safety concerns before being removed to third-party countries, finding that some detainees had been denied the opportunity to challenge their deportations under their due process rights.

The court's order asked both sides to argue whether lower courts had jurisdiction to rule on the issue and order nationwide relief, and whether the Trump administration's policy is legal or violates the due process clause or conventions against torture.

Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices the third-country deportation policy amounted to "an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens." The administration said it has used the policy to deport tens of thousands of non-citizens to Mexico and countries in Africa and Latin America after their home countries refused to accept them.

"While certain aliens may benefit from stalling their removal, the Nation does not," Sauer wrote in an emergency application filed on September 24.

The administration also argued that if a country has assured Secretary of State Marco Rubio it will not engage in persecution or torture, that should be sufficient grounds to deport a non-citizen there.

The Department of Homeland Security said Murphy's rulings had created logistical problems, including canceled flights, potential diplomatic clashes, and delays in removing people convicted of assault and drug crimes.

Lawyers representing migrants facing deportation warned of serious harms already suffered by those removed without adequate notice. "The record shows that class members removed without meaningful notice or an opportunity to present country-specific protection claims have faced prolonged and arbitrary detention, beatings and sexual assault, disappearance, and chain refoulement to countries from which the United States had already granted them protection," wrote attorney Trina Realmuto. "These harms cannot be undone."

Tuesday's ruling is not the first time the Supreme Court has weighed in on the practice. In June 2025, the court issued a similar unsigned order allowing such removals to proceed, clearing the way for eight men — including nationals of Cuba, Myanmar and Vietnam — to be deported to South Sudan, a country the US State Department advises against visiting due to "crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict."

Third-country deportations have been used to bypass court protection orders that prevent immigrants from being returned to their home countries due to fears of persecution. Critics and rights advocates have raised concerns that some receiving countries have records of human rights abuses, and that deportees have in some cases been sent onward to countries where they face risk of torture or other harm.

At least 35 countries have signed agreements with the Trump administration to accept third-country nationals, according to a tally by the nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First. The groups estimate that more than 25,000 people have been subject to such deportations so far.

On Monday, human rights experts at the United Nations wrote to the US government urging a halt to the removals, warning they were putting deportees at heightened risk of abuse. "At gravest risk are children, women, persons with disabilities, victims of trafficking, LGBT persons, human rights defenders, stateless persons and other people in extremely vulnerable situations," the experts said.

On Tuesday, Burundi became the latest country to sign an agreement with the United States to accept non-citizen deportees. Officials said the country would only accept individuals who were not facing prosecution and had no links to terrorism.