Question Presented
Before removing a noncitizen to a third country, must the government give that person a chance to raise fears of persecution or harm in that country?
Facts of the Case
Kevin Isaac Montoya Palacios, a citizen of El Salvador, entered the United States in April 2016 and was placed in removal proceedings. On September 11, 2023, an immigration judge ordered him removed to El Salvador but simultaneously granted him protection barring his removal to El Salvador under the Convention Against Torture. Following that order, Montoya Palacios was released from custody and placed under government supervision, which he says he complied with for years by reporting regularly to immigration authorities.
On December 8, 2025, Montoya Palacios attended a scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore. Officers revoked his supervised release and served him with notice of their intent to remove him to Mexico rather than El Salvador. Officers conducted an informal interview that day, but Montoya Palacios declined to make a statement. He was transferred to a detention facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Montoya Palacios argues that the procedures ICE followed gave him no real chance to raise fears about conditions in Mexico before the government sought to deport him there; the government argues that it provided all legally required process.
Montoya Palacios filed a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The district court dismissed his third-country removal claim without prejudice, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed.