Washington, D.C. (July 21, 2026) – A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies finds that a recent federal appeals court ruling could give Congress broad authority to expand expedited removal, potentially allowing millions of illegal aliens to be removed without lengthy immigration court proceedings.
A June 23 D.C. Circuit decision upheld the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s expansion of expedited removal to illegal aliens who have been present in the United States for less than two years without being admitted or paroled – as provided for in current law. (Prior administrations did not use expedited removal to the full extent Congress permitted.) The report then considers a broader question: whether the court’s reasoning would allow Congress to expand expedited removal to cover all aliens who were not admitted or paroled, regardless of how long they had been in the United States – and whether Congress should do so.
Senior Legal Fellow George Fishman, author of the report, concludes that the court’s constitutional analysis did not depend on the two-year limit in the statute. If that reasoning is adopted by other federal courts or ultimately affirmed by the Supreme Court, Congress could have broad authority to expand expedited removal beyond current law.
“Expanding expedited removal to all otherwise eligible aliens could reduce fraud, ease pressure on the immigration courts, and substantially improve the government’s ability to enforce the immigration laws,” said Fishman.
The report concludes that removing the current two-year cap would:
- Eliminate disputes over how long an alien has been in the United States.
- Reduce fraud involving fabricated documents used to establish continuous presence.
- Allow DHS to remove many more illegal aliens without adding millions of cases to already overwhelmed immigration courts.
- Strengthen Congress’s ability to create a more efficient removal system consistent with existing constitutional precedent.
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