A federal appeals court handed the Trump administration a major win on Tuesday.

According to NBC, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a lower court ruling that had temporarily blocked Trump's expanded use of so-called expedited removal. It’s a process that allows immigration authorities to deport someone without a hearing before a judge.

The decision clears the way for the government to fast-track deportations of undocumented immigrants anywhere in the country — not just at the border. Previously, expedited removal applied mainly to migrants picked up near the border or arriving by sea. In January 2025, Trump expanded it to cover undocumented immigrants across the entire country. The move was quickly challenged in court. 

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, had blocked the expansion last August, finding that migrants living in the U.S. interior deserved more than a bare-bones deportation process.

The appeals court reversed her. The two-judge majority — both Trump appointees — ruled that migrants had been given notice of removal proceedings and an opportunity to respond, satisfying constitutional due process requirements. Errors in the process, the majority said, stemmed from individual officers not following the law, not from problems with the policy itself.

The dissenting judge argued that a process capable of deporting someone without even asking how long they've lived in the country may work at the border, but falls far short for people apprehended in the interior. Civil liberties groups called the ruling a serious blow to immigrant rights. 

“The Trump administration’s push for fast-track deportations will subject people to an unfair and error-prone system. This ruling undermines the fundamental principle that people receive due process when the government seeks to deport them,” said Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead counsel, per CNN. “We are exploring next steps.”

The ruling is the latest milestone in the administration's sweeping immigration crackdown and is expected to face further legal challenges.