A federal appeals court handed President Donald Trump a significant win in his mass deportation efforts with a ruling Tuesday reviving his administration’s move to speed up deportations of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Expanded Deportation Policy

The ruling from the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals allows the Trump administration to cast a wider net over who’s subject to the fast-track deportation procedure known as “expedited removal,” which allows immigration authorities to remove an individual from the country without a hearing before an immigration judge.

The decision allows the administration to move forward with its plan to quickly deport illegal immigrants who are residing in the United States and can’t prove they’ve lived in the country continuously for two years or more.

Judges Justin Walker and Neomi Rao – both Trump appointees – sided with the administration. Judge Robert Wilkins – who was put on the bench by President Barack Obama – dissented.

The majority opinion by Walker rejected the challengers’ arguments that the expanded policy violated the Constitution’s right to due process.

The Department of Homeland Security’s General Counsel James Percival celebrated the ruling, saying the DC circuit “vindicated” the administration.

Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead counsel, said the ruling undermines the fundamental principle that people receive due process when the government seeks to deport them.

Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.