A divided federal appeals court ruled that the Department of Homeland Security acted within its authority when it expanded expedited removal procedures for many illegal immigrants.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A federal appeals court ruled June 23 that the Trump administration may move forward with a nationwide expansion of fast-track deportations, reversing a lower court order that had blocked the policy.
In a split decision, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Department of Homeland Security acted within the authority Congress gave immigration officials when it issued a January 2025 order expanding expedited removal.
The DHS order authorized immigration personnel to quickly remove illegal immigrants who entered the United States without valid documentation or through fraud, had not been paroled into the country, and could not show they had been continuously present in the United States for at least two years before officials determined they were removable.
Circuit Judge Justin Walker wrote for the majority that DHS had “exercised its discretion to apply its expedited removal authority to the maximum extent allowed by law.”
The decision overturns a 2025 preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington. Cobb had ruled that the expanded expedited removal process likely violated the constitutional rights of illegal immigrants and could result in people being wrongly deported.
“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 at the time. “Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk. The Government could accuse you of entering unlawfully, relegate you to a bare-bones proceeding where it would ‘prove’ your unlawful entry, and then immediately remove you.”
Walker said the appeals court was lifting Cobb’s injunction because Make the Road New York, the organization that challenged the policy, had not shown it was likely to succeed in the case.
Make the Road New York argued that the expanded process denied its members proper notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond before removal. Walker rejected that argument, saying the government had provided notice of the policy change and that the law gives people subject to expedited removal an opportunity to contest whether they qualify for that process.
The organization also argued that DHS forms failed to clearly tell immigrants they could avoid expedited removal by proving two years of continuous presence in the United States. Walker said no legal authority required the government to provide that instruction on the forms.
“Here, aliens are informed that DHS is placing them in expedited removal. And they may contest their amenability to that process, including by asserting continuous presence,” Walker wrote. “The Fifth Amendment does not require the government to provide advance legal instruction, to reallocate statutory burdens, or to guarantee optimal conditions for evidence-gathering before the threshold determination Congress authorized.”
Circuit Judge Neomi Rao joined Walker’s opinion.
Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins partially dissented, saying courts have found that the administration deported multiple noncitizens who had been in the United States for more than two years.
“DHS has not contested this factual finding,” Wilkins wrote. “This begs the question of how and why the agency is removing people from the country in a manner contrary to the federal statute. The answer to this question is pretty simple: DHS is using procedures that do not allow a meaningful opportunity for noncitizens to demonstrate that they have been continuously present in the United States for two years.”
Make the Road New York did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
DHS General Counsel James Percival praised the ruling, saying the court “vindicated our decision to apply the law as written.”
The ruling gives the Trump administration a significant legal victory as it continues its broader immigration enforcement push, allowing DHS to use expedited removal procedures more widely across the country while the legal challenge proceeds.
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