A federal judge in Boston, Massachusetts on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration's bid to lift a block on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy that implemented rapid deportations of migrants to third-party countries, or places not of their origin.

"It is not fine, nor is it legal," US District Judge Brian Murphy wrote in his ruling.

Murphy explained that the US Congress made it "the policy of the United States not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country" where that "person would be in danger of being subjected to torture" and that the government "may not remove" someone to a country where their "life or freedom would be threatened."

He added that any person facing deportation from the United States was entitled to due process of the law, including representation by an attorney and access to a court hearing.

"These are our laws, and it is with profound gratitude for the unbelievable luck of being born in the United States of America that this Court affirms these and our nation's bedrock principle: that no 'person' in this country may be 'deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,'" Murphy said.

"From the beginning, DHS’s third-country removal policy has targeted these individuals, many of whose personal characteristics make them targets of persecution and oppression around the globe," he said, citing "race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion" as factors that could expose them to torture.

The ruling stemmed from a class-action lawsuit last March from four migrant petitioners against DHS’s new procedures for rapid and sometimes immediate deportation of migrants to countries such as El Salvador, Libya and South Sudan, in which they could suffer human rights abuses, including torture.

"This new policy—which purports to stand in for the protections Congress has mandated—fails to satisfy due process for a raft of reasons, not least of which is that nobody really knows anything about these purported 'assurances,'" said Murphy.

"Whom do they cover? What do they cover? Why has the Government deemed them credible? How can anyone even know for certain that they exist? These are basic questions that the Constitution permits a person to ask before the Government takes away their last and only lifeline."

The judge granted DHS a temporary 15-day stay period, during which the federal government could file an appeal.

The Trump administration said it expects the case will be elevated to the US Supreme Court for a final ruling.

The nation's highest court had previously intervened in the case, overriding Murphy’s April 2025 preliminary injunction that prevented DHS from deporting migrant petitioners to third countries. (AA)

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