A federal judge has halted the Trump administration’s latest attempt to fast-track deportations, striking down policies that would have dramatically expanded expedited removals across the United States.
U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb ruled Friday that the policies posed a “significant risk” of deporting people who have legal permission to stay in the country. Her decision blocks two measures introduced in January that widened eligibility for expedited removal far beyond the border regions where the process has traditionally been used.
Judge Cobb, appointed by Joe Biden, sided with Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy group that challenged the expansion. The organization argued that the changes violated immigrants’ constitutional right to due process.
“[The court] merely holds that in applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country who have not previously been subject to expedited removal, the Government must afford them due process. The procedures currently in place fall short,” Cobb wrote in her opinion.
She emphasized that while she was not questioning the government’s authority to expand expedited removals, the policies must still safeguard basic rights. “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,” she noted.
Expedited removal allows the government to deport individuals without a hearing before an immigration judge. Historically, this process was limited to people detained within 100 miles of the southern border and within 14 days of arrival.
President Trump expanded the policy nationwide during his first term, but it was later rolled back by President Biden. In his second term, Trump again attempted to broaden his reach, making millions more people vulnerable to removal without full hearings.
Earlier this month, Judge Cobb also blocked the administration from applying expedited removal to immigrants with parole status, ruling that such a move unfairly altered the rules for people who had already been authorized to remain.
The ruling comes at a time when deportations are at their highest level in a decade. Since Trump returned to office, around 200,000 people have been deported. According to the Pew Research Center, the immigrant population in the U.S. dropped by 1.4 million between January and July, driven both by removals and by people leaving voluntarily out of fear.
Cobb underscored that those affected “have a weighty liberty interest in remaining here and therefore must be afforded due process under the Fifth Amendment.” Her decision represents a significant setback for the administration’s efforts to accelerate deportations nationwide.