Defining Due Process Down: Expedited Removal in the United States

Abstract

Canadians debating the merits of restricting access to the national territory by asylum seekers and others should consider the experience of the United States with its new expedited removal process. Three years after its enactment, U.S. immigration authorities have come to rely on expedited removal. Yet many troubling questions have been raised about the treatment by immigration officers of individuals in expedited removal and about the impact of the mandatory detention of asylum seekers. A particular concern arises from the elimination of the fundamental safeguard of judicial review.