Trump team wants to go around the courts to deport people even faster

The Trump administration has yet another new disturbing anti-immigrant idea: giving itself sweeping authority to deport potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants much faster than the courts would normally allow.

The new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal, reported Thursday by Politico, would give the Trump administration expanded authority to make use of a process known as “expedited removal.”

Under current policies, the “expedited removal” process can only be used for undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States less than two weeks, and only if they are within 100 miles of the border. The process, based on a 1996 law, allows the government to bypass immigration courts in those limited cases.

The new DHS proposal, however, would drastically expand this authority by expanding the two-week limit to two years — and completely eliminating the 100-mile limit. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents would be allowed to use “expedited removal” anywhere in the country, and swiftly deport anyone who could not prove they had been in the United States for at least two years.

If the proposal moves forward, “we will have a major, major enforcement action in the interior, targeting people who have already settled here,” Nicolette Glazer, an immigration attorney, told ThinkProgress. Some estimates say the new policy could impact more than 400,000 immigrants living in the United States.

The proposal did not sit well with some members of Congress.

“This is an administration obsessed with attacking immigrants. And they will go to any lengths in order to make America white again, including executive overreach and circumventing courts,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) told Shareblue Media.

“Their purpose is to turn prejudice into policy. Ours must be to stop them,” Chu added. “We are a country of laws, and a country of immigrants, and I will not let Trump’s bigotry undo either.”

Trump’s anti-immigrant obsession has indeed become a centerpiece of his administration’s official policy. He campaigned on demonizing Latin Americans and other nonwhite immigrants, and his administration has cruelly separated children from their families and is trying to crack down even on legal immigration. Trump has also defied the separation of powers by declaring a fake “national emergency” to try to get around Congress and build a racist, unnecessary wall along the U.S-Mexico border.

When it comes to hurting and demonizing immigrants, Trump seems to think the rules don’t apply to him. This new proposal is more of the same.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.