The Department of Homeland Security’s Authority to Expand Expedited Removal

Non-U.S. nationals (aliens, as the term is used in federal statute) apprehended by immigration authorities when attempting to unlawfully enter the United States are generally subject to a streamlined, expedited removal process, in which there is no hearing or further review of an administrative determination that the alien should be removed. Since the enactment of the expedited removal statute in 1996, expedited removal has been used primarily with respect to aliens who have either arrived at a designated port of entry or were apprehended near the border shortly after surreptitiously entering the United States. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), however, authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to apply expedited removal more broadly to aliens in any part of the United States who have not been admitted or paroled by immigration authorities, if those aliens have been physically present in the country for less than two years and either did not obtain valid entry documents or procured their admission through fraud or misrepresentation.