What is expedited removal?
A process to deport some immigrants without undergoing the full removal process was expanded in 2025.
When US authorities move to deport unauthorized immigrants, most of the immigrants are entitled to an administrative removal process that guarantees them access to a lawyer and the opportunity to present their case in immigration court. But some people are immediately deported under “expedited removal,” a process allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to bypass the typical administrative requirements.
Who is subject to expedited removal?
The expedited removal process was enacted in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The legislation authorized DHS to bypass hearings for immigrants who were not admitted by authorities and who had been in the US for less than two years.
Using expedited removal was an option, not a requirement, and DHS’s initial implementation was relatively narrow, focusing on unauthorized immigrants who:
- Arrived at ports of entry without entry documents,
- Entered the US by sea without formal admission and who had been in the country for less than two years, or
- Were apprehended within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of entering without admission
In 2019, during the first Trump administration, DHS expanded the practice to the full extent authorized by the law, meaning any unauthorized immigrant who had been in the country less than two years was eligible. This expansion was rescinded by the Biden-era DHS in 2022 and reestablished during Trump’s second administration, in January 2025.
A timeline of expedited removal
The recent expansion has prompted multiple lawsuits in the Washington, DC, District Court system, some challenging the constitutionality of expedited removal.
How many immigrants are removed via expedited removal?
Some data on expedited removals is available through the Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS), though a report that OHSS had previously released monthly has not come out since January 2025. That edition reports November 2024 data, so none of the available data covers the time since the 2025 policy expansion.
[The] report that OHSS had previously released monthly has not come out since January 2025.
This data shows that in most months, DHS deports between 10,000 and 20,000 people via expedited removal, though those numbers were down during the COVID-19 emergency.
In FY 2024, 193,520 immigrants were removed under the statute, more than any other year on OHSS’s record (since 2014).
In most months, DHS deports between 10K and 20K immigrants via expedited removal.
Number of immigrants deported via expedited removal by month, October 2013–November 2024
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