REFILE-US appeals court lifts block on Trump policy allowing fast third‑country deportations
By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, March 16 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday lifted a judge's order that invalidated a Trump administration policy allowing for the rapid deportation of migrants to countries other than their own without providing them a chance to raise any concerns they have for their safety.
A 2-1 panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the administration's request to pause U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's February 25 ruling that declared the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's policy unlawful while the government pursues an appeal.
Murphy had concluded that the policy, adopted in March 2025 as part of Republican President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, failed to protect migrants' due process rights and could lead to their swift deportation without notice to unfamiliar and potentially dangerous countries.
In asking for Murphy's "fatally flawed" ruling to be stayed, the administration noted it twice before convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the case and was ready to ask the justices to do so again if the appeals court did not act.
The Supreme Court previously lifted a preliminary injunction Murphy issued in April protecting the due process rights of migrants facing deportation to third countries and later cleared the way for eight men to be sent to South Sudan.
"The district court’s order creates an unworkable scheme that materially impairs the ability of the government to enforce the immigration laws," Justice Department lawyers wrote.
Monday's brief order was signed by Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Jeffrey R. Howard, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, and U.S. Circuit Judge Seth Aframe, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
They said the court would hold oral argument after expedited briefing in the case is complete in mid-April. U.S. Circuit Judge Lara Montecalvo, a Biden appointee, dissented and said she would have denied the administration's stay request.
"While the order unfortunately delays the restoration of our class members’ statutory and due process rights, we are glad that the 1st Circuit ordered a swift resolution of the merits of the case," Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said in a statement.
A DHS spokesperson in a statement said the 1st Circuit had vindicated the agency, which "must be allowed to execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them."
The order stems from a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of migrants facing deportation to countries not previously named in their removal orders or identified in their immigration court proceedings.
The policy allows migrants to be deported to such countries if immigration authorities either have credible diplomatic assurances they will not be persecuted or tortured if sent there, or have given the migrants as little as six hours of notice that they are being sent to such a place.
Murphy, a Biden appointee, set aside the policy and declared that migrants who had been subject to it had a right to meaningful notice and a chance to raise objections to being deported to third countries.
The case is D.V.D. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 26-1212.
For the plaintiffs: Trina Realmuto of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance
For the United States: Mary Larakers of the U.S. Department of Justice
Read more:
Trump policy allowing swift deportations to alternate countries rejected by US judge
US appeals court weighs Trump policy allowing swift deportations to third countries
US judge open to again striking down Trump policy on third-country deportations
Supreme Court lifts limits on Trump deporting migrants to countries not their own
