A United States federal judge has stopped President Donald Trump’s administration from broadening the scope of a fast-track deportation programme, dealing a setback to his mass deportation agenda.
The programme, known as “expedited removal,” has historically been applied to migrants arrested near the US-Mexico border who had entered within the previous two weeks. Since January, however, Trump’s administration extended its use nationwide, targeting undocumented migrants who had lived in the country for up to two years.
On Friday, US District Judge Jia Cobb struck down the expansion, warning it risked wrongful deportations of people entitled to due process under the law.
“Unlike those apprehended at or near the border shortly after crossing, many of the individuals now targeted have lived in the US for months or years,” Cobb wrote in her 48-page ruling. She criticized the administration’s argument that migrants who entered illegally have no Fifth Amendment rights, stressing that such reasoning could endanger protections for all people in the country.
The case was brought by Make The Road New York, a migrant rights group. Cobb, appointed by former President Joe Biden, clarified that her ruling did not question the constitutionality of expedited removal itself, only its expanded application.
Trump, who is campaigning for a return to the White House, has repeatedly promised to deport millions of undocumented migrants. But his efforts have faced numerous legal hurdles, with courts emphasizing that affected individuals must have the opportunity to assert their rights before removal.
Citing the US Constitution, Judge Cobb underscored: “No person shall be removed from the United States without an opportunity, at some point, to be heard.”
