Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are trying to expel at least one immigrant to a country he’s never been to, despite a federal appeals court smacking down the Trump administration’s “third-country removal program” last week, new court documents show.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Department of Justice attorney asked a federal judge to lift a stay barring the transfer of a Peruvian man out of Massachusetts, because ICE wanted to transfer him to another facility “to effectuate his removal to the Central African Republic on Sept. 24, 2026.” DOJ claimed the appeals court decision is not in effect yet.
The man, identified in court documents using the pseudonym “John Doe,” came to the United States in June 2023 and was put in removal proceedings soon after. In May 2025, an immigration court granted him protections from removal under the Convention Against Torture, meaning the man had proven he was likely to be tortured if he was deported to Peru.
He had been living in Virginia but working temporarily in Maine when he was captured by ICE two months ago and detained in Massachusetts, where the Boston College Law School’s immigration clinic filed a habeas petition earlier this month.
Doe had work authorization, always updated his address with immigration officials, and has no criminal or arrest record, said Mary Holper, the law professor who runs the clinic. In the past, the Convention Against Torture and other similar protections meant someone could live and work in the U.S. indefinitely so long as they did not break the law, even though they did not have a pathway to citizenship. Under President Trump’s immigration assault, however, tens of thousands of these people have been captured and sent to ICE camps, where they are threatened with removal to a third country if they don’t “voluntarily” agree to return to their countries of origin.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Trump administration’s third-country removal policy on Friday, ruling in D.V.D. v. Department of Homeland Security that immigrants must be given more time to raise concerns about removal to a third country. It also cast doubt on the government’s agreements with so-called host nations that supposedly ensure the safety of third-country nationals, as the Prospect previously reported.
Yet in the Tuesday filing, the Department of Justice cited DHS’s March 2025 policy—the very policy that was just struck down—to justify its intent to remove Doe to Africa. DOJ “acknowledged the First Circuit’s decision,” but in a footnote claimed because the First Circuit “has not issued mandate in D.V.D. … it is ICE’s position that until mandate issues, the Third Country Policy may be relied upon.”
A mandate is a document in which an appeals court formally notifies a lower court of the result of its decision, generally issued within a few days of a decision. It is not typically viewed as the date that a decision begins, Holper said.
“They’re basically saying that even though the First Circuit issued its well-reasoned, complete comprehensive opinion … because of a technicality, which is that the actual mandate hasn’t issued, that this means that they don’t have to follow it,” Holper said.
Immigration attorneys in the D.V.D. case said on Friday the decision was effective immediately.
The judge in Doe’s case scheduled a hearing Thursday morning.
Public flight data shows a private jet frequently chartered by ICE flying to Mesa, Arizona, late Tuesday night using an ICE call sign. Mesa is a common departure point for ICE removal flights to Africa, and a partial flight plan obtained by the flight-tracking activist who goes by “JJ in DC” showed it is scheduled to leave for Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday night. Ghana has taken more third-country nationals than any of the other dozen African countries in the third-country network. It is unclear what removal stops, if any, the aircraft will make after Ghana.
When told about this aircraft and two other ICE charter planes scheduled to land near Boston Wednesday, Holper said, “I want to believe that the rule of law is in place, and that the government will honor that order” barring Doe’s transfer.
More than 25,000 people have been forcibly expelled to countries where they have no ties in Trump’s second term, according to Third Country Deportation Watch. Many of the nearly three dozen countries that signed agreements to take third-country nationals are authoritarian-controlled or otherwise unstable.
The Central African Republic has been in a near-constant civil war for decades and is one of the poorest countries on Earth. A State Department travel advisory issued earlier this year warned Americans not to travel there, “due to risk of unrest, crime, kidnapping, landmines, health [concerns], and terrorism.” Yet dozens of immigrants from all over the world have ended up virtually imprisoned in the capital city of Bangui via three ICE charter flights between June 12 and August 28.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on its reasoning for continuing third-country removals or how many it was planning. A spokesperson for DHS who did not identify themselves replied, “Please provide an A# or DOB,” referring to the “alien” number issued to immigrants and Doe’s date of birth.
