A federal judge has temporarily blocked the rapid deportations of undocumented migrants of the government of the US president, Donald Trump, giving the reason to civil rights groups that argue that the measure is a violation of due legal process.
In January, Trump restored the “immediate expulsion” of immigrants, a policy that already applied in his first term (2017-2021) and that allows the rapid deportation of undocumented people who cannot prove that they have been in the country for two years or more in the country, without a hearing.
Judge Jia Cobb, from Washington DC, issued an opinion in which she criticizes the measure, pillar of the mass deportation campaign promised by Trump, ensuring that “prioritizes the speed” and “will inevitably take the government to deport people by mistake through a truncated process.”
The rapid deportation policy of migrants
The rapid deportation policy of migrants was denounced by the American Union of Civil Libertads (ACLU), the main NGO in defense of immigrants in the US, on behalf of another pro -immigrant entity, Make the Road New York, who asked to block their effect, to which the judge has accessed.
In the 48 -page opinion, published on Friday night, the judge says not to question the constitutionality of the original rapid deportation policy, which takes a long time to deport immigrants near the southern border and have been in the US for a few days in the US, but its expansion.
In addition, COBB points out that “when applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country and have not previously been subject to rapid deportation, the government must guarantee due process,” says the document.
The complaint argued precisely that the measure violates the fifth amendment, which includes the right to a fair legal process, and the laws of immigration and nationality and administrative procedure. Cobb adds that, “by defending this little process, the government makes a truly surprising argument: that those who entered the country illegally have no right to a process under the fifth amendment, but must accept any grace given by Congress.”
