Trump Fast Deportation Rule Cleared by Appeals Court for Now (1)

A divided US appeals court lifted a temporary hold on a Trump administration policy that allows federal agents to rapidly remove undocumented immigrants without due process from anywhere in the US if they can’t quickly prove they’ve been in the country for more than two years.

The decision Tuesday in Washington allows the government to once again start enforcing a January 2025 policy that became a key element of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort. The rule expands the use of a policy that had long been used only for immigrants caught near the US border and only if they’d been in the country for a few weeks.

The Department of Homeland Security “exercised its discretion to apply its expedited removal authority to the maximum extent allowed by law,” Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, wrote in the majority opinion.

Read More: Trump’s ‘Startling’ Rapid Deportation Policy Paused by US Judge

The decision could provide a boost to Trump’s effort to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, including many who have been in the US for decades. Trump argues the crackdown is necessary to protect US citizens, though the actual threat posed by migrants is widely debated.

The nonprofit group that challenged the policy, Brooklyn-based Make the Road New York, has argued that the ongoing immigration crackdown has led to widespread fear among migrants that they’ll be seized suddenly by masked agents and removed from the US with little recourse.

Make the Road New York didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The appeals court overturned an August 2025 ruling by US District Judge Jia Cobb, who held that expedited removal left too much room for error, including the rapid deportation of individuals who have legitimate reasons to remain in the US. Cobb had ruled that expanding the policy only allows more errors, possibly irreversible ones.

“The government could accuse you of entering unlawfully, relegate you to a bare-bones proceeding where it would ‘prove’ your unlawful entry, and then immediately remove you,” Cobb wrote at the time. “By merely accusing you of entering unlawfully, the government would deprive you of any meaningful opportunity to disprove its allegations.”

(Updates with detail from the ruling.)

--With assistance from Zoe Tillman.

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