A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with expanding fast-track deportations throughout the United States, handing the president a legal win in his immigration crackdown.
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. The policy that took effect Tuesday, drafted in the first week of President Trump's second term in January 2025, expands expedited removal to anywhere in the United States and applies it to 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 expansion violated due process rights, following a lawsuit from immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York. The two appellate judges in the majority, Trump-appointed Justin Walker and Neomi Rao, disagreed. They found the policy offers sufficient due process protections. According to CBS News, they wrote that Make the Road had not shown that the expedited removal process denies its members notice and an opportunity to be heard.
The lower court judge had called the government's procedures for ensuring people are not accidentally subjected to expedited removal woefully inadequate, writing that migrants were not even informed that being in the country for at least two years is a possible defense. The appellate court pushed back, finding that standard would require immigration officers to provide what amounts to legal advice.
Obama-appointed Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins dissented, arguing the policy deprives people of due process rights. He wrote in part that the policy does not require immigration officials to ask migrants how long they have been in the country or inform them of the two-year rule. "Absent such knowledge, the noncitizen is simply left to hope that the immigration officer will conclude that they have met their burden of demonstrating two-years of continuous presence at the initial screening interview," Wilkins wrote.
James Percival, the top lawyer at DHS, said Tuesday's order "vindicated our decision to apply the law as written." "It's not too late to take a $2,600 check and a free flight home!" Percival added, referring to the Trump administration's incentives to push people in the U.S. illegally to self-deport.
