A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with an effort to expand fast-track deportations throughout the U.S., in a legal win for the president's crackdown on illegal immigration.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of judges at the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia Circuit allows the Department of Homeland Security to carry out an expansion of the expedited removal process, which empowers federal immigration officials to deport some detainees without court hearings.

Before the second Trump administration, the expedited removal policy was limited to areas close to the border and only applied to recent entrants who could not prove they had been living in the country for more than two weeks.

But the policy allowed to take effect Tuesday expands expedited removal to anywhere in the United States. Officials can use it on any unauthorized immigrant who cannot prove they have been in the country for more than two years. 

In August 2025, a federal judge found the Trump administration's expansion of expedited removal violated due process rights. The panel of appellate judges disagreed Tuesday, invalidating her order. 

James Percival, the top lawyer at DHS, said Tuesday's order "vindicated our decision to apply the law as written."

"It's not too late to take a $2,600 check and a free flight home!," Percival added, referring to the Trump administration's incentives to push people in the U.S. illegally to self-deport. 

This is a breaking story; it will be updated.