In an announcement Monday, the Trump Administration discussed expanding the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) authority regarding the expedited removal of immigrants.

Under the proposed measures, aliens who “did not arrive by sea,” were encountered within “100 air miles” of the U.S. border, and who have been “continuously present in the U.S. for at least 14 days but less than two years” are eligible for expedited removal.

“Expedited removal” allows immigration authorities to deport undocumented immigrants without a hearing before an immigration judge. Prior to this measure, only undocumented immigrants caught within 14 days of arrival and within 100 miles of a land border were subject to the procedure.

This measure will drastically increase the speed and scope of the DHS’s ability to deport immigrants in a year in which the DHS has arrested close to 700,000 people crossing the border illegally.

From the DHS’s perspective, this new initiative will help alleviate the strain on federal immigration detention centers. According to data from the Federal Register notice released Monday, the average time in custody for “aliens placed in expedited removal” in 2018 was about 11 days. For aliens placed in “full removal proceedings,” the average time in custody was 52 days.

President Donald Trump praised “Big progress at the Border” as recently as Sunday.

Big progress at the Border, but Dems in Congress must change the Immigration Laws for all to be good! End the Loopholes and much more. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2019



Still, despite the president’s support, many are predicting a legal battle. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in March that asylum seekers had the right to seek federal judicial review of an expedited removal order.

This new DHS measure will reportedly go into effect on Tuesday.

[Photo via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

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