RIGHT SPEAK: The Trump Administration Pushes Rule to Allow Swifter Deportations

Photo: jose luis gonzalez/Reuters

The Trump administration is moving to swiftly remove immigrants who cross the U.S. border illegally for as long as two years after their arrival, and from anywhere in the country.

The move is part of a series of legal changes aimed at stemming a surge of Central American families, many of whom are fleeing poverty and violence, that has brought the U.S. immigration infrastructure to a breaking point. Advocates for immigrants have vowed to challenge the Trump initiatives in court.

Another recent proposal, to bar asylum claims from people who have crossed through at least one other country on their way to the U.S., faced scrutiny in a federal court in Washington later Monday, as a judge appointed during President Trump’s administration weighed arguments for 3½ hours over whether to block the rule immediately. The judge indicated he could issue a decision within the next day or two.

The latest rule from the Department of Homeland Security, described in an online notice posted Monday, will expand the policy known as “expedited removal.” It allows for people to be deported without hearings before an immigration judge or appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals, unless they have managed to demonstrate a fear of returning to their home country. It is currently only applied to people who have been in the country for two weeks or less or are within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

DHS specifically cited the Central American families arriving at the border between official entry points, which exceeded 130,000 in May before starting to fall in June, for the change.

Photo: AFP

“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, DHS is issuing the New Designation,” the notice said.

It also said it was part of a broader bid to dissuade the families from coming to the U.S. and trying to enter between official ports: “DHS anticipates that this broader use of expedited removal orders will reduce incentives not only to enter unlawfully but also to attempt to travel quickly into the interior of the United States in an effort to avoid the application of expedited removal.”