Migrants Returned Home Despite Court Orders, New York Times Reports
The New York Times reported on November 9, 2026, that immigrants are being systematically returned to their home countries despite court orders, and that foreign partners working with the Trump administration accept them. The Times article is the most recent account in a series of legal rulings and filings over a practice known as third-country deportation, in which a migrant is sent to a country other than the one they came from or are citizens of.
The administration has said it sends people with final deportation orders, meaning orders requiring them to leave the United States, to third countries when they cannot be returned to their own, according to the Associated Press.
The legal fight over that practice ran through the summer and fall of 2026. A federal judge issued an order in February blocking third-country deportations. In September, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to pause that order, which had largely been upheld by an appeals court, CBS News reported.
Earlier that month, a U.S. appeals court had rejected the administration's policy allowing swift deportations to third countries. Reuters reported on September 18 that the court had done so, and Deutsche Welle reported that the court largely upheld a ruling blocking the rapid removals.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, attempted to deport a Peruvian man to Africa after that appeals ruling, The Hill reported.
On September 29, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries that are not their own, according to Reuters and the Associated Press.
