WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants detained in the interior of the United States.
The move is a setback for the Republican administration’s efforts to expand the use of the federal expedited removal statute to quickly remove some migrants in the country illegally without appearing before a judge first.
President Donald Trump promised to engineer a massive deportation operation during his 2024 campaign if voters returned him to the White House. And he set a goal of carrying out 1 million deportations a year in his second term.
But US District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., suggested the Trump administration’s expanded use of the expedited removal of migrants is trampling on individuals’ due process rights.
“In defending this skimpy process, the Government makes a truly startling argument: that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them,” Cobb wrote in a 48-page opinion issued Friday night. “Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk.”
The Department of Homeland Security announced shortly after Trump came to office in January that it was expanding the use of expedited removal, the fast-track deportation of undocumented migrants who have been in the US less than two years.
The effort has triggered lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups.
Before the Trump administration’s push to expand such speedy deportations, expedited removal was only used for migrants who were stopped within 100 miles of the border and who had been in the US for less than 14 days.
Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, didn’t question the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute, or its application at the border.
“It merely holds that in applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country who have not previously been subject to expedited removal, the Government must afford them due process,” she writes.
Cobb earlier this month agreed to temporarily block the Trump administration’s efforts to expand fast-track deportations of immigrants who legally entered the US under a process known as humanitarian parole — a ruling that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people.
In that case the judge said Homeland Security exceeded its statutory authority in its effort to expand expedited removal for many immigrants. The judge said those immigrants are facing perils that outweigh any harm from “pressing pause” on the administration’s plans.
Since May, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have positioned themselves in hallways to arrest people after judges accept government requests to dismiss deportation cases. After the arrests, the government renews deportation proceedings but under fast-track authority.
Although fast-track deportations can be put on hold by filing an asylum claim, people may be unaware of that right and, even if they are, can be swiftly removed if they fail an initial screening.
Federal judge issues order blocking Trump effort to expand speedy deportations of migrants
https://arab.news/bxwjs
Federal judge issues order blocking Trump effort to expand speedy deportations of migrants
- Setback for the Republican administration’s efforts to expand the use of the federal expedited removal statute
- The effort has triggered lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups
Liverpool parade driver jailed for 21-and-a-half years for using car as ‘weapon’ to plow into crowds of fans
- Paul Doyle drove into the mass of fans simply because he lost his temper, prosecutors said
- His lawyer Simon Csoka told the court: “The defendant is horrified by what he did ... he is remorseful”
LONDON: A British man who injured more than 130 people by plowing his car into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans during May’s Premier League victory parade was jailed for 21-and-a-half years on Tuesday, after admitting 31 criminal charges over the incident.
Paul Doyle drove into the mass of fans – hitting adults and children, who bounced off his vehicle or were dragged underneath it – simply because he lost his temper, prosecutors said.
The 54-year-old last month pleaded guilty to charges including nine counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and 17 counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, on what would have been the first day of his trial.
Prosecutor Paul Greaney on Monday said Doyle was “a man in a rage whose anger had completely taken hold of him” when he deliberately drove at jubilant fans, injuring 134 people including eight children.
“He not only caused injury on a large scale, but he also generated horror in those who had attended what they had thought would be a day of joyfulness,” Greaney said.
His lawyer Simon Csoka told the court: “The defendant is horrified by what he did ... he is remorseful, ashamed and deeply sorry for all those who were hurt or suffered.”
Doyle sat in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court as Judge Andrew Menary said: “It is almost impossible to comprehend how any right-thinking person could act as you did.
“To drive a vehicle into crowds of pedestrians with such persistence and disregard for human life defies ordinary understanding.”
UKRAINIAN SAYS SHE LOST SAFETY AGAIN
Greaney told the court on Monday that around a million people had come out to celebrate Liverpool’s 20th English league title, watching an open-top bus parade featuring the team and its staff with the Premier League trophy.
Doyle drove into the city center to pick up friends who had been to the parade before – in the space of 77 seconds at nearly 6 p.m. – he plowed into the crowd while shouting, swearing and beeping his horn as he repeatedly struck pedestrians.
One of Doyle’s victims was Anna Bilonozhenko, who was struck by his Ford Galaxy and required surgery for a fractured knee, had left Ukraine for Britain in 2024.
“We came to this country because of the war in our homeland, hoping to finally feel safe,” she said in a statement read on her behalf. “At first, we did but now that feeling has been taken away ... it feels like losing our safety all over again.”
Others who were caught up in the incident described the long-term effects on themselves and their loved ones, saying they were unable to work, care for their families, be in crowded places or watch Liverpool.
