Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday asked the US Supreme Court to lift restrictions on the deportations of immigrants to third countries.

Last week, a federal appeals court broadly upheld a lower court ruling restricting a Trump administration policy of deporting undocumented migrants to countries that are not their own, so-called "third-country removals."

Late Wednesday, the appeals court lifted a stay on the initial ruling that had been in place as the appellate judges deliberated.

The US government is now urgently asking the Supreme Court to lift, until further notice, the limits on third-country removals, which it described as "an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens."

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Government counsel John Sauer said the lower court ruling "created substantial logistical problems" with removals.

Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of immigrants from the US and has taken a number of actions aimed at speeding up deportations since returning to the White House.

Trump's third-country deportations have sparked urgent alarms from human rights experts and groups.

An investigation published earlier this week found the US has deported more than 25,000 people under secretive agreements with 35 countries to take migrants with no ties to those nations.

Congress has made it US policy not to deport people to countries where their lives would be in danger or they could be subject to torture.