Federal immigration authorities in the United States recently conducted sweeping arrests of migrants outside immigration courthouses in several major cities, aiming to fast-track deportations through expedited removal procedures. The operations took place in New York City, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Seattle, raising concerns among immigrant advocates and legal experts.
Reports indicate that many of those detained had been in the country for less than two years. In several cases, immigration judges had just dismissed the migrants’ active cases, only for ICE officers to apprehend them immediately after hearings. This left families and lawyers alarmed by the abruptness of the arrests and the lack of time given to prepare. For instance, Geovanni Francisco and his mother, who legally entered the U.S. in 2023 through the Biden-era CBP One app, were detained in Phoenix shortly after their case was dismissed. According to family members, ICE did not even allow them time to gather their belongings.
This new enforcement effort reflects ICE’s strategy to speed up deportations by leveraging the expedited removal process, which bypasses the longer, more complex immigration court proceedings. Originally designed to swiftly deport individuals caught at or near the border without legal entry, expedited removal is now being applied more broadly to certain migrants whose cases have been closed.
The move aligns with former President Donald Trump’s push to deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants and his criticism that U.S. courts and existing laws slow down enforcement efforts. ICE guidance issued earlier this year instructed officers to review all migrants previously released under expedited removal and consider reapplying the process if they had not filed for asylum.
A senior official from the Department of Homeland Security stated that the effort targeted immigrants who were allowed entry during the Biden administration, emphasizing that ICE is “now following the law” by placing these individuals in expedited removal as they “always should have been.”
However, this approach has sparked concerns from immigrant rights advocates and legal experts, who warn that expedited removal may deny migrants their right to due process and asylum hearings, increasing the risk of wrongful deportations and family separations. Many attorneys argue that the justice system must ensure fairness and protect the legal rights of vulnerable immigrants.
The operation highlights the ongoing political and legal tensions in U.S. immigration policy, reflecting sharp divides over enforcement priorities and humanitarian considerations. How immigration courts and enforcement agencies balance efficiency with fairness will remain a critical issue in the national debate over immigration reform.
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