A federal judge on Friday halted Trump administration policies aimed at expanding fast-track deportations, ruling that they violate the constitutional due process rights of migrants who could be apprehended anywhere in the United States.

US District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, DC, sided with immigrant rights group Make the Road New York to block two policies adopted in January that dramatically widened the scope of expedited removals.

For nearly three decades, expedited deportations have been used to swiftly return migrants apprehended at the border. But under the Trump administration’s January changes, the process was expanded to cover non-citizens detained anywhere in the country who could not prove they had been in the United States for at least two years.

Cobb said the new policy differed from prior practice by targeting people who had long since entered the country. “That means they have a weighty liberty interest in remaining here and therefore must be afforded due process under the Fifth Amendment,” she wrote. She described the procedure as “skimpy” and warned that prioritising speed would “inevitably lead the Government to erroneously remove people.”

The Department of Homeland Security argued the ruling ignored Trump’s authority to enforce immigration laws, stressing his “mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst.” But Cobb refused to delay her ruling to allow the administration to prepare an appeal.

Earlier this month, Cobb also blocked the Trump administration from fast-tracking deportations of immigrants admitted under Biden’s humanitarian parole programs.

Erizia Rubyjeana 

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