A divided federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the regime can deport people from anywhere in the USA without a hearing, without a judge, and without first asking how long they have lived here.

The D.C. Circuit held, 2-1, that the regime may apply expedited removal to the maximum extent the law allows, and that officers need not explain to anyone how they might avoid it. The opinion was written by Judge Justin Walker and joined by Judge Neomi Rao, both Trump appointees. It overturns an August ruling by US District Judge Jia Cobb, who found the policy violated due process and warned it risked deporting people who should never have been deported at all.

Expedited removal is not new. For nearly three decades it was used narrowly, to turn back migrants caught at the border, who could be removed without ever seeing an immigration judge. In January 2025 the regime expanded its scope to cover non-citizens apprehended anywhere in the country who could not show they had been here for two years, on the spot, to whichever officer happened to be standing in front of them. Judge Cobb blocked that expansion last summer. Tuesday's ruling switches it back on.