Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Expansion of Speedy Deportations

Immigrants should be able to appeal their cases in a court hearing, a federal judge says.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a wider group of people without a court hearing, a blow to one of the key parts of President Trump’s deportation campaign.

Donald Trump (via REUTERS)

In January, the Trump administration expanded use of fast-track deportations to immigrants who can’t prove they have lived in the U.S. illegally for more than two years. Previously, the rule only applied to people in the country illegally for fewer than two weeks and were found within 100 miles of the border.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said in a Friday night order that the administration’s rule is illegal and those immigrants should be able to appeal their case.

She said the government’s argument that immigrants living in the U.S. illegally aren’t entitled to due process was startling.

“Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk,” she wrote. “The Government could accuse you of entering unlawfully, relegate you to a bare-bones proceeding where it would ‘prove’ your unlawful entry, and then immediately remove you.”

Cobb, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, wrote that when the government ramped up enforcement in May it arrested people on their way to immigration court who were seeking asylum or other ways to stay in the country legally.

“The group of people the Government is now subjecting to expedited removal have long since entered our country,” Cobb wrote in her order. “That means that they have a weighty liberty interest in remaining here and therefore must be afforded due process under the Fifth Amendment.”

The Department of Homeland Security said the judge’s ruling ignores Trump’s authority under the law.

“President Trump has a mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst,” the agency said Friday. “We have the law, facts, and common sense on our side.”

Write to Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com