A federal judge temporarily blocked the rapid deportations of undocumented immigrants from the Donald Trump government, giving the reason to civil rights groups that argued that the measure is a violation of due legal process.
In January, Trump restored the “immediate expulsion” of immigrants, a policy that has 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 2 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, saying that “prioritize the speed” and “will inevitably take the government to deport people by mistake through this truncated process.”
The rapid deportation policy was denounced by the American Union of Civil Liberties (ACLU), the main NGO in defense of immigrants in the US, in the name 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.
COBB states that “when applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country and have not been subject to rapid deportation, the government must guarantee due process,” the document indicates.
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.”
“If that were right, not only the non -citizens, we would all be at risk,” the judge adds.
