New Bill Gives DHS Secretary Unreviewable Power to Apply Expedited Removal to More Border Crossers

This bill, the Expedited Removal Expansion Act of 2025, is focused entirely on changing how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) handles people seeking admission at the border who are flagged as inadmissible. Essentially, it tweaks the rules for expedited removal—a process designed to quickly remove certain individuals without a full hearing before an immigration judge.

The Secretary Gets the Keys to the Kingdom

Here’s the biggest change: The bill grants the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to apply these expedited removal procedures to anyone found inadmissible under certain sections of the law (specifically, those related to having fraudulent documents or lacking proper entry documents, sections 212(a)(6) or 212(a)(7)). Crucially, the bill specifies that the Secretary’s decision to apply these rules is entirely discretionary and, get this, cannot be reviewed by anyone. This is a massive concentration of power, allowing one person to decide which groups of inadmissible aliens are subjected to immediate removal proceedings—and they can change their mind whenever they "feel like it," according to the bill text.

Expanding the Expedited Lane

Previously, some aliens were explicitly excluded from these swift, expedited removal rules, meaning they were entitled to a standard inspection process that includes more due process. This bill removes that exclusion (by deleting subparagraph (F) and renumbering the rest). For regular people, this means that more individuals seeking entry who might have previously had a right to a more thorough inspection could now be immediately subjected to expedited removal. When you’re dealing with processes that bypass traditional court hearings, expanding the pool of people affected is a serious procedural shift.

The Evidence Paradox

There’s one interesting twist related to evidence. When an officer is trying to determine inadmissibility in a specific scenario (clause (v)), the required standard of proof is being raised. Instead of needing to show there’s a "significant possibility" of inadmissibility, the officer now needs "clear and convincing evidence." On the surface, raising the standard of evidence sounds like a win for due process. However, this only applies to a very specific, narrow part of the inspection process. Meanwhile, the overall framework grants the Secretary sweeping, unreviewable power to apply the expedited removal hammer to whole categories of people. The net effect is a trade-off: a slightly higher bar for officers in one specific instance, but a much wider path for the DHS to apply swift removal to everyone else.

What This Means in the Real World

If you’re a policy wonk, this bill is about the executive branch consolidating enforcement power and limiting judicial review. If you’re a regular person, this bill significantly increases the risk for anyone seeking admission at the border who may have documentation issues—even minor ones. It moves the authority for these procedures from the Attorney General to the Secretary of Homeland Security, modernizing the roles, but simultaneously granting the Secretary the unchecked ability to apply a fast-track removal process to more people. The people most impacted are those who might have previously had a chance to argue their case in a standard inspection but will now be subject to a much quicker, final decision made solely by DHS leadership.