A United States court of appeals has said that the administration of President Donald Trump can proceed with a process to fast-track the deportation of immigrants living in the country.
A majority on the three-member panel for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted on Tuesday to overturn a lower court ruling that had blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from expanding qualifications for expedited removal.
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The ruling is a victory for the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail due process rights for migrants, as it pursues a policy of mass deportation.
Previously, expedited removal was used more narrowly to quickly turn back migrants apprehended at the US border.
But the Trump administration has sought to also apply that process to non-citizens detained anywhere in the US, if they cannot prove that they have been in the country for more than two years.
That effort has been opposed by rights groups who say that it violates the right to due process, as it does not give non-citizens the ability to appeal their deportation.
Due process is established as part of the US Constitution, and it applies to anyone in the country regardless of citizenship status.
Tuesday’s lawsuit was filed by the immigrant rights group Make the Road New York.
In August, the case reached US District Judge Jia Cobb, who ruled that the policy violated due process rights. She also noted that the expedited removal process risks creating errors, resulting in the deportation of people who should not otherwise be deported.
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“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 August 25 opinion.
The appeals court overturned that decision, with Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, writing that the administration can “expedite removal to the maximum extent allowed by Congress”.
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