A federal appeals court over the weekend declined to lift a lower court order barring the Trump administration from using expedited removals to rapidly deport migrants without a court hearing.
The administration earlier this year looked to expand the use of such proceedings, which were previously only used for recent arrivals encountered close to the border. The White House aimed to broaden the use of expedited removals to those who crossed the border at any point in the last two years anywhere in the country.
In a 2-1 decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the panel declined to lift an August ruling that barred the administration from implementing the policy as the legal battle plays out.
The majority wrote that the policy carries “serious risks of erroneous summary removal” by swiftly deporting people with little process for them to challenge.
The judges also chastised the administration for using a process that fails to alert migrants, the majority of whom have been in the U.S. for more than two years, that their longevity in the U.S. could exclude them from the expedited process.
“It simply leaves it to the detained individual to spontaneously and affirmatively prove two years of continuous residence,” the judges wrote.
Additional arguments on the merits of the case are scheduled for December.