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Expanded Expedited Removal Suspended: DHS

October 15, 2021 (1 min read)

Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News, Oct. 14, 2021

"A Trump-era policy that allows ICE officers to arrest and rapidly deport certain undocumented immigrants without access to a judge was suspended by the Biden administration Thursday after BuzzFeed News obtained government data that showed it had been used several times this year. “DHS’s review of expanded expedited removal is ongoing. This particular application of expedited removal was used in an exceedingly small number of cases under the Biden Administration and will not be used moving forward until the Department’s review is completed,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. ... The data given to BuzzFeed News by ICE appears to be the first public acknowledgment by government officials on the use and scope of the policy. “The administration is right to direct that expanded expedited removal not be used while review is ongoing. [Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas should now move swiftly to rescind this Trump era policy,” said Anand Balakrishnan, an ACLU attorney who led a lawsuit over the policy. The controversial effort, which was initially instituted in 2019 by the Trump administration and faced an immediate legal challenge that delayed its deployment, allows ICE officers to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants without a hearing in front of an immigration judge. The policy was blocked by a federal judge in 2019 before an appellate court lifted the preliminary injunction last year. ICE officials later issued guidance to its officers last October on how to use it."