Trump Moves to Kick Out More Immigrants Without Hearings
The Trump administration on Monday announced its intention to vastly expand the population of undocumented immigrants who are eligible for expedited removal from the United States without due process, directly tying the policy with attempts to relieve pressure on overcrowded immigration detention facilities—even as immigrant rights groups argue that the two issues are not related.
In a notice released by the Department of Homeland Security on Monday morning, the administration announced that adult undocumented immigrants who fail to prove “that they have been physically present in the United States continuously for [a] two-year period” can face expedited removal—that is, physical removal from the country on the order of an immigration officer without going through the normal deportation process, including hearings before an immigration judge.
The effect of the change, the notice states, “will be to enhance national security and public safety—while reducing government costs—by facilitating prompt immigration determinations.” Citing Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan’s “sole and unreviewable discretion,” the notice declares that a more expansive eligibility for expedited removal is necessary “in light of the ongoing crisis at the southern border, the large number of aliens who entered illegally and were apprehended and detained within the interior of the United States, and DHS’s insufficient detention capacity both along the border and in the interior of the United States.”