Federal judge blocks Trump admin's effort to expand expedited deportations

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to broaden the use of expedited deportations for illegal immigrants. The administration earlier this year sought to expand the federal expedited removal statute in order to remove more illegal immigrants quickly without them being required to appear before a judge.

District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, ruled Friday that the administration’s effort may violate the due process rights of those subject to removal. “In defending this skimpy process, the Government makes a truly startling argument: that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them,” Cobb wrote in a decision Friday. “Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk," the judge argued.

When Trump first took office, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would expand expedited removal to target illegal immigrants who had been in the country less than two years. The move immediately drew lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and immigration rights groups.

Before this expansion attempt, expedited removal was only applied to migrants apprehended within 100 miles of the border who had been in the country for less than 14 days.

Cobb clarified that her ruling did not challenge the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute itself or its application at the border. Instead, she said, “It merely holds that in applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country who have not previously been subject to expedited removal, the Government must afford them due process.”

According to the Associated Press, DHS responded by saying Cobb’s decision “ignores the President’s clear authorities under both Article II of the Constitution and the plain language of federal law.” The Department added that Trump “has a mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst” and that “we have the law, facts, and common sense on our side.”

Earlier this month, Cobb also temporarily blocked the administration’s attempt to apply expedited deportations to immigrants who entered the country under humanitarian parole, a policy expanded on by the Biden administration, ruling that DHS had exceeded its statutory authority.