DHS General Counsel James Percival said in a statement that the ruling “confirmed our decision to enforce the law as written.”
NEW YORK:- A federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for the Trump administration to expand the expedited deportation process for undocumented immigrants.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 to overturn a judge’s decision that had blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s move to expand the category of individuals eligible for expedited removal. It is worth noting that the expedited removal process has been used for nearly three decades to quickly return migrants apprehended at the border.
But in January 2025, the administration expanded its scope to include non-citizens arrested anywhere in the U.S. who could not show they had been in the country for two years. The policy mirrored a policy adopted by the Trump administration in 2019 that was later repealed by the Biden administration.
After the immigrant rights advocacy group Make the Road New York filed a lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Zia Cobb blocked the implementation of those new policies, saying they violated the constitutional due process rights of immigrants who could be arrested anywhere in the United States.
But the D.C. Circuit disagreed with a written ruling by Trump-appointed Circuit Judge Justin Walker, who said the Trump administration was allowed to expand expedited removals “to the maximum extent authorized by Congress.”
He said immigrants are notified that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is placing them on expedited removal and have an opportunity to object, including showing that they have been continuously present in the United States for two years.
“For the most part, the district court’s findings demonstrate that Congress’s expedited screening system operates quickly and with reasonable constraints — characteristics that the law itself contemplates,” he wrote. “They do not demonstrate that the challenged instructions deprive aliens of a meaningful opportunity for a hearing.”
In his opinion, Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Naomi Rao largely joined, and Barack Obama-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins dissented. Wilkins objected to allowing immigrants to be subjected to the fast-track deportation process without even asking how long they have been in the U.S., saying such a process is “grossly inadequate for people found in the interior of the country.”
DHS General Counsel James Percival said in a statement that the ruling “confirmed our decision to enforce the law as written.”