NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The Trump administration announced Friday that it is expanding a fast-track deportation authority nationwide, allowing immigration officers to deport migrants without appearing before a judge as the president seeks to make good on a sweeping agenda of removing everyone who is in the U.S. illegally.
The news of the expanded use of expedited removal comes as Newark, New Jersey, officials lashed out over what they say were illegal arrests by federal immigration officers at a local business.
At a news conference Friday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who showed up at the business Thursday detained three “undocumented residents” as well as some U.S. citizens. He said one person was questioned even after showing military identification.
“When I got this information I was appalled, upset, angry that this would happen here, in this state, in this country,” said Baraka, a Democrat who is seeking the party’s nomination for governor. “We’re going to fight for all of our residents in this city, no matter what that looks like for us.”
About half of the city’s population of 305,000 is Black and nearly 40% is Hispanic, according to census figures.
ICE has described what happened Thursday as a “targeted enforcement operation” and said agents may ask other people for identification when they’re conducting “field work.”
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite … in Newark, New Jersey,” the agency said in a statement. ICE said it could not comment further because the investigation is active.
President Donald Trump’s administration has taken action on a number of fronts on his signature campaign promise of cracking down on illegal immigration. And in executive orders signed after he took office Monday, Trump laid out a vision for future actions designed to dramatically boost immigration enforcement in the interior of the country while ratcheting down access at the southern border.
After declaring a national emergency and describing immigration at the southern border as an invasion, Trump sent military troops to the border; lifted longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near schools and churches; indefinitely suspended the refugee program; and halted key Biden-era immigration pathways.
On Friday, the administration said it was expanding the use of “expedited removal” authority so it can be used across the country and that it would take immediate effect.
“The effect of this change will be to enhance national security and public safety — while reducing government costs — by facilitating prompt immigration determinations,” the administration said in a notice in the Federal Register outlining the new rules.
“Expedited removal” gives enforcement agencies broad authority to deport people without requiring them to appear before an immigration judge. There are limited exceptions, including if they express fear of returning home and pass an initial screening interview for asylum.
Critics have said there’s too much risk that people who have the right to be in the country will be mistakenly swept up by agents and officers and that not enough is done to protect migrants who have genuine reason to fear being sent home. Friday’s notice said the person put into expedited removal “bears the affirmative burden to show to the satisfaction of an immigration officer” that they have the right to be in the U.S.
The powers were created under a 1996 law. But they weren’t really widely used until 2004, when Homeland Security said it would use expedited removal authority for people arrested within two weeks of entering the U.S. by land and caught within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the border. That meant it was used mostly against migrants who recently arrived.
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Santana reported from Washington.
