The Trump administration has been temporarily blocked from expanding fast-track deportations in its bid to hurriedly remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb issued the stay in Make the Stay New York v. Kristi Noem after concluding the administrative action denies immigrants the right to due process guaranteed to them under the Fifth Amendment.
The administration’s “countervailing interests are insufficient to overcome the weight of the constitutional deprivation here,” Cobb’s order states. “While the government has correctly asserted its weighty interest in enforcing the immigration laws, it has not explained how a stay would inappropriately interfere with that interest.”
Since 1996, U.S. law has permitted the expedited removal of noncitizens apprehended within 100 miles of land or sea borders and within two weeks of illegally entering the country. Deportation hearings before immigration judges are not required under the provision.
The Obama administration relied heavily on the process, with the Department of Homeland Security using it to conduct 198,000 removals in 2013, the largest number in a fiscal year, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
“In 2017, before leaving office, the Obama administration extended expedited removals to Cubans; previously, Cubans who reached U.S. soil had been granted parole to enter.”
“Upon retaking office, Trump sought to pick up where he had left off.”
President Donald Trump’s first-term expansion of the policy to cover the U.S. interior was upheld by a federal court but that ruling came too late to fully implement the program. President Joe Biden rescinded the expansion but used rapid deportations at the border after Title 42 ended.
“Upon retaking office, Trump sought to pick up where he had left off,” MPI reported. “On his second day in office, he expanded expedited removal to ‘the full scope of its statutory authority.’ DHS has not released data on the number of expedited removals carried out from the U.S. interior since then, but the vast majority of migrants arriving at the border have been placed in expedited removal.”
DHS said Cobb’s ruling ignores the power and authority granted the president in Article II of the U.S. Constitution, CBS News reported.
“DHS is exercising its full authority under federal law by placing illegal aliens who have been here for less than two years into expedited removal. President Trump has a mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst. We have the law, facts, and common sense on our side.”
But the organization and attorneys who filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in June said the ruling clearly honors the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process to “any person” in the U.S.
Arlenis Morel
“Everyone in this country is entitled to due process — it is one of the core tenets of our government,” said Arlenis Morel, co-executive director of Make the Road New York, a nonprofit that provides legal and educational services to immigrants.
Like its other harmful immigration policies, the administration’s expansion of expedited removal to include long-settled immigrants is designed to instill fear in families and communities, Morel said. “The strategy of the Trump administration seems to be to bombard immigrants and their allies with heinous policies so as to overwhelm. We will not let this happen.”
Donna Lieberman
Expanding expedited removal is an attempt to deny constitutional justice to hundreds of thousands of people, said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“This cruel, extremist effort will undoubtedly leave children without parents, families without their breadwinners, businesses without workers, and immigrant communities in shambles,” she said. “ImmigraFast-tnts deserve sensible, humane policies that carve fair pathways to citizenship — not Trump making horrendous, illegal attacks on their communities.”
Cobb’s order went into effect immediately as she denied the government’s request for a two-week hold on the ruling while the Justice Department appeals.
Supreme Court precedent has long confirmed Fifth Amendment protections apply to aliens as well as U.S. citizens, the ruling explains.
“In so holding, the court does not cast doubt on the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute, nor on its longstanding application 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. The procedures currently in place fall short.”