Just four days\nafter the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration\u2019s bid to wind down\nDACA on a procedural technicality, an appellate court in Washington, D.C.,\ngreen-lighted a program to fast-track removal of illegal aliens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a significant victory for immigration enforcement, the D.C. panel overturned<\/a> an injunction that had blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from broadening the number of migrants subject to expedited deportation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quicker deportations have been a top administration priority. Upon taking office, one of President Trump\u2019s first executive orders<\/a> directed DHS to expand expedited removals, with an emphasis on recently arrived illegal aliens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DHS\nprogram authorizes accelerated removal of illegal aliens who have been in the\nU.S. for less than two years. Previously, expedited removal was limited to a 100-mile\nzone along the border; to those who arrived by sea; and to those in the country\nfor 14 days or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judge Patricia\nMillett, an Obama appointee on the D.C. circuit, affirmed in the court\u2019s\nunanimous ruling that federal statutes give the DHS secretary \u201csole and\nunreviewable discretion\u201d to apply expedited removal within certain constraints.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere could\nhardly be a more definitive expression of congressional intent to leave the\ndecision about the scope of expedited removal, within statutory bounds, to the\nsecretary\u2019s independent judgment,\u201d Millett wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three-member D.C. panel voided an injunction issued by another Obama appointee last fall. In that ruling, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson<\/a> asserted that the Trump administration did not follow proper decision-making procedures, such as the formal notice-and-comment period required for major federal rule changes. She called the DHS action \u201carbitrary and capricious.\u201d (DHS\u2019s public notice can be read here<\/a>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jackson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2012 and was interviewed for a Supreme Court vacancy in 2016, issued her 126-page ruling<\/a> last September, just before midnight on a Friday.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n DHS argued that expedited deportation would relieve\noverburdened immigration courts and “harmonize” existing regulations\nto apply equally to illegal aliens. “The effect of that change will be to\nenhance national security and public safety \u2014 while reducing government costs \u2014\nby facilitating prompt immigration determinations,” the agency said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Justice also noted that, “Congress expressly authorized\nthe Secretary of Homeland Security to act with dispatch to remove from the\ncountry aliens who have no right to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a perfect world, DHS would not have restricted fast-track deportations to aliens here illegally for less than two years \u2013 a timeframe that does<\/em> seem arbitrary. But with more than 1 million<\/a> illegal-entry cases pending in the nation\u2019s immigration courts, the policy will provide at least some relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Immigration\nlawyers who tried to block the DHS action are now on the defensive. The\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union maintains that the appeals court decision did\nnot definitively resolve the case and wants a do-over. ACLU says it will return\nto Jackson\u2019s court to press claims she did not address before issuing her\ninjunction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just four days after the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration\u2019s bid to wind down DACA on a procedural technicality, an appellate court in Washington, D.C., green-lighted a program to fast-track removal of illegal aliens. In a significant victory for immigration enforcement, the D.C. panel overturned an injunction that had blocked the Department of Homeland<\/p>\n