A federal court in Washington, D.C. has blocked President Donald Trump's plan to expand an expedited deportation process to immigrants who have been in the country longer than two years.
In the ruling released on Friday, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb slammed the Trump administration's apparent lack of care for due process, warning that under these new rules, basically anyone could be deported without an adequate chance to defend themselves.
"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," wrote Cobb. "That is because most noncitizens living in the interior have been here longer than two years, rendering them ineligible for expedited removal, and many are seeking asylum or another form of immigration relief, entitling them to further process before they can be removed. The procedures the Government currently uses in expedited removal, however, create a significant risk that it will not identify these disqualifying criteria before quickly ordering someone removed. And the lack of available review means that once the removal happens, it is largely too late to correct the error."
"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 continued, which, she said, is an untenable legal argument.
"Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk," she continued. "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. By merely accusing you of entering unlawfully, the Government would deprive you of any meaningful opportunity to disprove its allegations. Fortunately, that is not the law."
The Trump administration has repeatedly come under criticism and alarm for the lack of due process being given to people in deportation proceedings — an issue that burst into the forefront of national debate with the improper removal of Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from his family in Maryland to the infamous CECOT megaprison.