Trump administration expanding fast-track deportation authority nationwide

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Friday that it is expanding a fast-track deportation authority nationwide, allowing immigration officers to deport migrants without appearing before a judge as President Donald Trump seeks to make good on a sweeping agenda of removing everyone who is in the U.S. illegally.

The administration said it is expanding the use of “expedited removal” authority so it can be used across the country.

“The effect of this change will be to enhance national security and public safety — while reducing government costs — by facilitating prompt immigration determinations,” the administration said in a notice in the Federal Register on Friday outlining the new rules.

In Trump’s first week in office, his administration has taken action on a number of different fronts on his signature campaign promise of cracking down on illegal immigration.

After declaring a national emergency and describing immigration at the southern border as an invasion, he sent military troops to the border; lifted longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near schools and churches; indefinitely suspended the refugee program; and halted key Biden-era immigration pathways.

In executive orders signed Monday, Trump also laid out a vision for future actions designed to dramatically boost immigration enforcement in the interior of the country while ratcheting down access at the southern border.

Friday’s news of the expanded use of expedited removal comes as Newark, N.J., officials are lashing out over what they say were illegal arrests by federal immigration officers at a local business. About half of the city’s population of 305,000 is Black and nearly 40% is Hispanic, according to census figures.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who is seeking the party’s nomination for governor this year, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained “undocumented residents” along with U.S. citizens on Thursday. City officials are slated to have a news conference Friday.

“Expedited removal” gives enforcement agencies broad authority to deport people without requiring them to appear before an immigration judge. There are limited exceptions, including if they express fear of returning home and pass an initial screening interview for asylum.

Critics have said there’s too much risk that people who have the right to be in the country will be mistakenly swept up by agents and officers and that not enough is done to protect migrants who have genuine reason to fear being sent home.

The powers were created under a 1996 law. But these powers weren’t really widely used until 2004, when Homeland Security said they would use expedited removal authority for people arrested within two weeks of entering the U.S. by land and caught within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the border. That meant it was used mostly against migrants recently arrived in the country.

In the notice Friday the administration said the authority could be used across the country and would go into effect immediately.

The notice said the person put into expedited removal “bears the affirmative burden to show to the satisfaction of an immigration officer” that they have the right to be in the U.S.

Catalini reported from Newark, N.J.