The Sixth Circuit has denied an emergency motion to stay the removal of a Nigerian citizen to Ghana, a third country, in a published order. The petitioner was ordered removed to Nigeria in 2013 but granted withholding of removal as to Nigeria. Under DHS's March 2025 policy implementing 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(2)(E)(vii), the government may remove a non-citizen to a third country that has provided credible diplomatic assurances without further procedures, and the government said Ghana had done so. The petitioner argued that removal without individualized process violated the INA, the APA, and due process.
The court held that she was unlikely to succeed because her claims are essentially those litigated in the D.V.D. v. DHS nationwide class action, of which she is a member, and absent class members generally cannot relitigate a failed class claim in an individual suit. The court found the irreparable harm evidence in equipoise, since her country conditions evidence was dated or generalized while Ghana's assurances were credible, and held that the government's interest and the public interest in executing a decade-old removal order favored denying the stay under Nken v. Holder.
The full text of Ojukwu v. Lyons can be found here: https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/26a0282p-06.pdf