The Trump administration announced on a Friday that it is expanding a fast-track deportation authority nationwide, enabling immigration officers to deport migrants without the requirement of a judicial hearing. This measure is part of President Donald Trump's extensive plan to remove individuals who are present in the United States illegally.
The administration outlined that the extended use of "expedited removal" authority is designed to be implemented across the entire country. According to a notice published in the Federal Register, the administration claims that this change will enhance national security and public safety while lowering government expenditures by facilitating quick immigration decisions.
During his first week in office, Trump took multiple actions related to his core campaign commitment to crack down on illegal immigration. This included declaring a national emergency while describing immigration issues at the southern border as an invasion, deploying military troops to the border, lifting long-standing rules that limited immigration enforcement around sensitive locations such as schools and churches, and indefinitely suspending the refugee program. Additionally, Trump's administration halted key immigration pathways instituted during the Biden era.
On the following Monday, Trump signed executive orders that laid out future plans aimed at significantly increasing immigration enforcement within the interior of the United States and limiting access at the southern border.
The announcement regarding the expansion of expedited removal authority coincides with controversy in Newark, New Jersey, where officials express outrage over what they claim were unlawful arrests made by federal immigration officers at a local business. Approximately half of Newark's population of 305,000 consists of Black residents, while nearly 40% identify as Hispanic, according to census data.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat pursuing the party's gubernatorial nomination this year, reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained undocumented immigrants along with U.S. citizens on Thursday. City officials are expected to hold a news conference to address these incidents.
The expedited removal authority allows immigration enforcement agencies to deport individuals without needing them to appear before an immigration judge. However, there are limited exceptions provided, such as when individuals express fear of returning to their home countries and pass an initial screening for asylum eligibility.
Critics have raised concerns that the implementation of this authority poses too great a risk of incorrectly deporting individuals who have legitimate rights to remain in the U.S. Moreover, they argue that insufficient measures are in place to protect migrants who genuinely fear persecution upon returning to their home countries.
This authority was established under a law enacted in 1996, but it did not see widespread application until 2004, when the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would utilize expedited removal for individuals apprehended within two weeks of entering the U.S. by land and within 100 miles of the border. Previously, it primarily targeted recently arrived migrants.
The recent notice from the administration states that the expedited removal authority is now applicable nationwide and is effective immediately. It specifies that individuals placed under expedited removal bear the responsibility to demonstrate their right to remain in the U.S. to the satisfaction of immigration officers.
