A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out fast-track deportations of undocumented migrants living in the interior of the United States.
The ruling is a setback for President Donald Trump's plan to expand the use of the federal expedited removal statute, which allows the government to deport certain migrants quickly without a judge hearing their case first, the Associated Press reported.
Trump had promised during his 2024 campaign to carry out a large-scale deportation operation and set a target of 1 million deportations per year in a second term.
US District Judge Jia Cobb, however, said the expanded use of expedited removal could violate individuals’ due process rights.
“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 48-page opinion issued Friday night.
“Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk,” the federal judge added.
Since January, the Department of Homeland Security has expanded expedited removal to undocumented migrants who have been in the US for less than two years, triggering lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups.
DHS defended the policy, saying Cobb's “ruling ignores the President’s clear authorities under both Article II of the Constitution and the plain language of federal law.”
{{/usCountry}}DHS defended the policy, saying Cobb's “ruling ignores the President’s clear authorities under both Article II of the Constitution and the plain language of federal law.”
{{/usCountry}}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.”
Before this expansion, expedited removal applied only to migrants stopped within 100 miles of the border who had been in the US for less than 14 days.
Cobb, nominated by President Joe Biden, clarified that she is not questioning the constitutionality of the statute itself or its use at the border.
“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,” she wrote.
She added, “Prioritising speed over all else will inevitably lead the government to erroneously remove people via this truncated process.”
The judge had previously blocked similar fast-track deportations for immigrants who entered under humanitarian parole, saying that DHS exceeded its authority and that those immigrants faced serious risks if deported too quickly.
With Associated Press inputs