WASHINGTON—The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a brief in the District of Columbia federal district court in a case challenging expedited removal—a process in the law in which border officers can bypass immigration courts and get illegal aliens out quickly. President Donald Trump has expanded this process to its maximum extent—and the same anti-borders group that had tried and failed to stop him from doing so in his first administration is trying to stop him again.
Before Trump’s first term, and during the Biden Administration, expedited removal was limited to aliens who were caught within 100 miles of any land or sea border and who entered the U.S. without inspection less than 14 days before they were encountered. Using authority granted by Congress, the first Trump Administration expanded the program to include all aliens who are found anywhere in the United States without immigration papers, if they are unable to prove that they have been continuously present in the country for two years. After the weak border enforcement of the Biden interregnum, the second Trump Administration has reinstated this expansion.
The plaintiff, an anti-borders group, seeks an injunction of the expansion. In its brief, however, IRLI shows that the court has no jurisdiction to grant one, because the statute of limitations has run, having begun, under the expedited removal statute, when Trump first expanded the program in 2019, not when he later reinstated that action.
“The Trump Administration has expanded expedited removal to its maximum extent under the law,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “This step was made necessary by the tremendous numbers of illegal aliens in the country, and the immense backlogs in our immigration courts. We hope the court sees its lack of jurisdiction over this case, and does not allow it to slow the removal process down.”
The case is Make the Road New York v. Wolf, 1:25-cv-00190 (D.D.C.).
