An American judge blocked a Trump administration policy that has allowed federal agents to quickly expel undocumented immigrants Without due process of any place in the United States if they cannot quickly demonstrate that they have been in the country for more than two years.
Friday’s decision suspends a promulgated rule in January that has become a key element of the mass deportation initiative of President Donald Trump. This rule expanded a policy known as “accelerated expulsion”, which for a long time had been applied only to detained immigrants near the American border and only if they had been in the country for a few weeks or less.
The new policy allowed these deportations to be carried out from any place in the United States and anyone with less than two years of residence in the country. However, the accelerated deportation process has always left too much margin of error, according to Federal District Jia Jia Cobb in the ruling, including rapid deportation of people with legitimate motives to remain in the United States. Expanding politics only allows more errors, possibly irreversible, he added.
“The government could accuse him of entering illegally, submitting him to a simple procedure where he would” test ‘his illegal entry and then expel him immediately, “ Cobb wrote. “Just accusing him of entering illegally, the government would deprive him of any significant opportunity to refute his accusations.”
Cobb described the “surprising” government arguments and pointed out that it means that undocumented immigrants “have no right to any process under the fifth amendment, They must accept any grace that Congress gives them. “
This decision represents the last setback for Trump’s government offensive against undocumented immigrants, What has generated a generalized fear among millions of migrants of being detained suddenly by masked and expelled agents from the United States with hardly any resources. In another case, a federal los Angeles judge prevented immigration officials from using racial profiles in their migrants in the region. The Government has asked the United States Supreme Court to suspend that decision.
In a statement on Cobb’s decision, the National Security Department said the ruling was issued by an “activist judge” and does not recognize the president’s authority on immigration.
“The previous administration facilitated an invasion of our country by the southern border,” according to the statement. “The DHS is exercising all its authority under federal law by subjecting undocumented immigrants to accelerated deportation who have been in the country for less than two years. ”
Cobb said in his ruling that the precedent of the Supreme Court and the Constitution have long guaranteed that the people in the United States illegally and that they were not previously subject to the accelerated deportation policy have the right to significantly challenge their deportation.
“Therefore, the Court rejects the extraordinary request of the Government to deal with due to the guarantee of due process of the Constitution to the millions of immigrants who, Even if they have entered illegally, they have established their lives here and have made this country their home, ”Cobb said.
The demand, presented on January 22 by the non -profit organization Make the Road New York, based in Brooklyn, He challenged Trump’s policy to allow “low -level immigration officers” to summarily deport foreigners without providing adequate access to lawyers or the opportunity to collect evidence.
“The administration’s decision to expand accelerated deportation to a large group of non -citizens living in any part of the United States ignores almost three decades of experience that show that the accelerated deportation process, Even when used on the border for newcomers, it is plagued with errors and gives rise to generalized violations of the legal rights of people, ”said the group in the complaint.
