Appeals court allows expanded fast-track deportations

A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to move ahead with a major expansion of expedited removal, a fast-track deportation process that can now apply to non-citizens apprehended anywhere in the United States if they cannot show they have been in the country for two years.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2-1 to overturn a lower court order that had blocked the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing the policy. The process has for nearly three decades been used more narrowly to quickly return migrants apprehended at the border.

The administration expanded the policy in January 2025 to cover non-citizens detained throughout the country who cannot prove continuous presence in the U.S. for more than two years. The Guardian reported that the policy mirrored one adopted by the Trump administration in 2019 and later rescinded by the Biden administration.

The immigrant rights group Make the Road New York sued to stop the expansion. In August, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb blocked enforcement of the new policy, finding that it violated migrants’ constitutional due process rights. Cobb also warned that the system could lead to wrongful deportations.

“When it comes to people living in the interior of the country, prioritizing speed over all else will inevitably lead the Government to erroneously remove people via this truncated process,” Cobb wrote in her Aug. 25 opinion, according to Al Jazeera.

The appeals court disagreed. Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, wrote for the majority that the administration was permitted to expand “expedited removal to the maximum extent allowed by Congress.”

Walker said migrants placed in expedited removal receive notice and have an opportunity to object, including by showing they have been continuously present in the country for two years.

“At most, the district court’s findings show that Congress’s expedited screening system operates quickly and with practical constraints – features the statute itself contemplates,” Walker wrote. “They do not show that the challenged directives deprive aliens of a meaningful opportunity to be heard.”

Judge Neomi Rao, also appointed by Trump, joined Walker’s opinion in large part. Judge Robert Wilkins, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, dissented.

Wilkins objected to subjecting migrants apprehended inside the country to expedited removal without even asking how long they had been living in the U.S., saying that procedure “is woefully inadequate for persons encountered in the interior of the country,” The Guardian reported.

Rights groups have opposed the expansion, arguing that it violates due process because it does not give non-citizens the ability to appeal their deportation. Al Jazeera reported that due process protections apply to anyone in the United States regardless of citizenship status.

James Percival, DHS’s general counsel, said in a statement that the ruling “vindicated our decision to apply the law as written.” Lawyers for Make the Road New York did not immediately respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.