Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that asylum seekers cannot ask federal courts to review their fast-track deportation orders is extremely distressing. In Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, the Court determined that people who are placed into expedited removal, a rapid deportation process that the administration is trying to significantly expand, generally may not seek judicial review.
This decision all but guarantees that some people with fundamentally flawed removal orders will be wrongfully returned to grave danger or death. Reports by advocacy groups and independent, bipartisan government commissions over the years have documented the many faults in the expedited removal system and the frequent mistakes made by the officers who process these fast-tracked deportations, yet today’s decision denies essentially all judicial review over this process. We have had clients who had corroborating evidence in their hands during interviews who were never allowed to present that evidence supporting their claim and who were denied for an alleged lack of credibility. We have seen others who went through the entire expedited removal and credible fear process without ever being given access to an interpreter in their best language before being denied and ordered removed.
With this ruling, asylum seekers in those situations will have essentially no recourse in federal court to fight their detention and hasty removal. In the face of these mounting attacks on human rights and due process, we will continue to do everything in our power to fight for the rights of asylum seekers and all migrants.
