On September 24, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to carry out the deportation of a Peruvian immigration detainee, identified in court filings as "John Doe," to the Central African Republic, days after the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy in D.V.D. v. Department of Homeland Security. Doe, who holds protection from removal to Peru under the Convention Against Torture, had been held in ICE custody in Massachusetts since July. On September 22, a Department of Justice attorney asked a federal judge to lift a stay blocking Doe's transfer to another facility for removal, arguing that because the 1st Circuit had not yet issued a formal mandate, the third-country policy the court struck down on September 18 remained available to use against him. DHS general counsel James Percival stated publicly that "the third country deportation policy continues, as the First Circuit's ruling is not currently in effect." After learning an ICE flight was scheduled to remove Doe and others to the Central African Republic, Rwanda, and Burundi, plaintiffs' attorneys in the underlying case filed an emergency motion for clarification on September 23. Just before midnight, the appeals court rejected the government's position: "Consistent with this court's September 18, 2026, Judgment, the March 16, 2026, stay pending appeal is dissolved." At a Thursday emergency hearing, a DOJ attorney continued to press the mandate argument after the court's order, and the presiding judge declined to lift the bar on Doe's removal, though the judge also did not order Doe released. DHS did not directly answer whether it had defied the court, instead issuing a statement defending third-country removals as "an essential public safety tool." Why we recorded thisCourt orders only check executive power if the executive treats them as binding the moment they issue. After a federal appeals court struck down the government's third-country deportation policy, DHS's own general counsel publicly declared the ruling was "not currently in effect" and ICE moved to carry out a removal the ruling barred, requiring an emergency midnight order to stop it. Treating a judgment as optional until accompanying paperwork arrives converts judicial review into a formality the executive can outrun, eroding the check that makes every other legal protection enforceable.