U.S. blocks fast deportations for violating due process

New York.- A federal judge temporarily blocked this Friday the rapid deportations of undocumented migrants from the Government of the president of the USA, Donald Trump, giving reason to civil rights groups who argued that the measure constitutes a violation of due process of law. In January, Trump reinstated the “immediate expulsion” of immigrants, a policy he already applied in his first term (2017-2021) and which allows the rapid deportation of undocumented immigrants who cannot prove that they have been in the country for two consecutive years or more, without a hearing. Judge Jia Cobb, of Washington D.C., issued a ruling criticizing the measure, a cornerstone of the mass deportation campaign promised by Trump, stating that it “prioritizes speed” and “will inevitably lead the Government to mistakenly deport people through this truncated process.”

The rapid deportation policy for migrants

The policy of rapid deportations of migrants was denounced by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the main NGO defending immigrants in the U.S., on behalf of another pro-immigrant entity, Make The Road New York, who asked to block its effect, to which the judge has agreed. In the 48-page ruling, published Friday night, the judge says she does not question the constitutionality of the original rapid deportation policy, which has been in place for a long time to deport immigrants near the southern border who have been in the U.S. for a short time, but rather its expansion. Cobb adds that, “in defending this scant process, the Government makes a truly astonishing argument: that those who entered the country illegally are not entitled to due process under the Fifth Amendment, but must accept whatever grace Congress gives them.”