A federal appeals court on Tuesday, June 23, allowed President Donald Trump's administration to resume carrying out expedited deportations of undocumented migrants across the United States, not just near the border.
A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that had temporarily blocked the Trump administration's expanded use of expedited removal. The decision was a major victory for the Republican administration, which views the expansion of expedited removal as a key tool for implementing its policy of mass deportations.
Expedited removal — a swift deportation without the possibility of appearing before a judge — has previously been applied to migrants arriving by sea or those detained at or near the border shortly after crossing it.
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ACLU fears unfair trials
In January, Trump expanded his policy to include undocumented immigrants across the United States. Immigration agents began swiftly apprehending migrants at courthouses, where they had gone for immigration proceedings, and then deporting them within days.
“The Trump administration’s push to expedite deportations will subject people to an unfair and error-prone system,” Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.
Balakrishnan represented the plaintiffs in the arguments before the appeals panel and argued that the ruling “undermines the fundamental principle that people receive due process when the government seeks to deport them.”
DC Circuit Judge Justin R. Walker, one of the panel's judges, said the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the expanded use of expedited removal violated due process rights. The immigrants were notified of the removal proceedings and given an opportunity to respond, he wrote in his opinion.
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Trump's policies resume
Walker and the second majority judge, Neomi Rao, were appointed by Trump. The third judge on the panel was appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama.
Walker said there was no requirement for the government to inform immigrants that they can avoid expedited removal if they can prove they have been in the United States for more than two years.
“The constitutional requirement is notification of the action the government is taking and the grounds for it, plus an opportunity to respond,” he wrote, adding that the plaintiffs’ “contrary reasoning” would require immigration officers to provide what amounts to legal advice.
Walker and Rao overturned an order by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb that had put the policy on hold. Cobb, appointed by former Democratic President Joe Biden, ruled in August that the government had not developed procedures to ensure that migrants were not wrongfully deported under the expedited process.
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