A United States federal appeals court on Tuesday (23 June) allowed the administration of President Donald Trump to move forward with an effort to expand fast-track deportations throughout the country, in a legal win for the president's crackdown on illegal immigration.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of judges at the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia Circuit allows the Department of Homeland Security to carry out an expansion of the expedited removal process, which empowers federal immigration officials to deport some detainees without court hearings.
Before the second Trump administration, the expedited removal policy was limited to areas close to the border and only applied to recent entrants who could not prove they had been living in the country for more than two weeks.
But the policy allowed to take effect Tuesday — which was drafted in the first week of President Trump's second term in January 2025 — expands expedited removal to anywhere in the United States. Officials can use it on any unauthorized immigrant who cannot prove they have been in the country for more than two years.
In August 2025, a federal judge found the Trump administration's expansion of expedited removal violated due process rights, following a lawsuit from immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York. The panel of appellate judges disagreed Tuesday, invalidating her order.
The two appellate judges in the majority — Trump-appointed Justin Walker and Neomi Rao — found the policy offers sufficient due process protections.
"Make the Road has not shown that the expedited-removal process denies its members notice and an opportunity to be heard," they wrote.
Last August, a lower court judge called the government's procedures for ensuring people aren't accidentally subjected to expedited removal "woefully inadequate," writing that migrants were not even informed of the fact that being in the country for at least two years is a possible defense.
On Tuesday, the appellate court pushed back, finding that standard "would require immigration officers to provide what amounts to legal advice."