Thank the Judges Who Stopped ICE's Third-Country Removals

A federal appeals court has told the Trump administration that its policy of deporting people to countries they have no connection to is unlawful, and that the ruling takes effect now.

As The American Prospect reports, the First Circuit Court of Appeals struck down DHS's third-country removal policy in the landmark D.V.D. v. Department of Homeland Security case. Days later, Justice Department lawyers argued in a separate case that the ruling wasn't yet in force because a procedural paperwork step, called a mandate, hadn't been issued. They used that argument to try to move a Peruvian man toward removal to the Central African Republic.

The court's answer took three sentences. Shortly before midnight, it dissolved its earlier stay and made clear the policy was unlawful immediately. The next morning, the district judge in the man's case refused to entertain the paperwork argument and kept the order barring his removal in place.

Flight data shows ICE charter planes were still moving toward Africa in the hours after the ruling, raising the possibility that other people may have been removed in violation of the court's order.

Add your name to thank the judges who acted quickly to hold the line, and to call on DHS and the Justice Department to comply fully with the court's ruling and end third-country removals.

Courts can only protect people if the government follows their orders. These judges made clear that a technicality is no excuse to keep deporting people to places they have never been.