Did Bill Clinton create a fast-track deportation process exempt from due process? No.

Social media users are citing an immigration law former President Bill Clinton signed to say immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not entitled to due process. 

"In 1996, Congress specifically authorized the executive branch to conduct non-judicial deportations NOT SUBJECT TO DUE PROCESS," the Bell County Texas Republican Party posted April 30 on Facebook. The post included a graphic with a photo of Clinton that said, "In 1996 Bill Clinton signed his Immigration Reform Act that stated illegals could be deported without judicial hearings, sooo if this is really about Due Process and the Constitution talk to him."

On Fox News on May 6, Mark Tepper, CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners, made a similar statement. 

"Bill Clinton deported 12.1 million during his presidency," Tepper said. "Ninety-two to 93% of those people were sent back without a 'formal proceeding,' aka due process."

As President Donald Trump seeks to fulfill his campaign promise to carry out mass deportations, invoking a wartime law and deporting people to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, he faces several lawsuits arguing he is infringing on immigrants’ due process rights. In response, Trump and members of his administration have brushed aside immigrants’ due process rights.  

Congress passed and Clinton signed a 1996 immigration law that established expedited removal, a fast-track deportation process that allows people to be deported without going before an immigration judge. But the law didn’t revoke immigrants’ due process. 

For example, people subject to expedited removal undergo a screening during which they can express a fear of persecution that, if founded, makes them eligible to remain in the U.S., Katherine Yon Ebright, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security program, said. 

In an April ruling about the Trump administration's use of a wartime law to quickly deport people, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the government must provide immigrants with notice of their deportation and they must be given time to contest it. 

"They need to know what's happening to them, and then they need to have an opportunity to contest the charges," Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said. "And that's also true in expedited removal, just like it is in immigration court. People need to be able to show that they have a right to stay and for that claim to be adjudicated."

All noncitizens in the U.S., regardless of their legal status or how they entered the country, have due process rights. 

As president, Clinton deported 12.3 million people, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. But the majority of those deportations didn’t happen under expedited removal. Around 11.4 million of the deportations were returns, where immigrants generally choose to leave the U.S. at the border without further repercussions such as being barred from reentering. 

Noncitizens in the U.S., regardless of their legal status, have due process rights

Due process generally refers to the government's requirement to follow fair procedures and laws. The Constitution’s Fifth and 14th amendments protect "any person" against being deprived by the U.S. government of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

"People have a right to be heard, and there are certain steps that need to be taken before someone can, say, be jailed," Bush-Joseph said.

Several court rulings have determined that due process rights are extended to all people in the U.S., not just U.S. citizens or immigrants in the country legally. The U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act dictate the process the government must use to afford immigrants due process rights.

In immigration, due process generally refers to "appropriate notice (of government action), the opportunity to have a hearing or some sort of screening interview to figure out, are you actually a person who falls within the law that says that you can be deported," Yon Ebright said.

Expedited removal is not an exception to due process

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act established the expedited removal process, which allows immigration officials to quickly deport certain people without a court case and with limited appeal opportunities. The act was part of an omnibus spending bill and it passed with bipartisan support in the House and the Senate. 

Featured Fact-check

Stephen Miller

stated on May 9, 2025 in an interview

The Immigration and Nationality Act “stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases.”

Under expedited removal, immigration officers — not an immigration judge — order a person’s deportation. People deported using expedited removal generally are barred from reentering the U.S. for five years.

An expedited removal order typically can’t be appealed, the American Immigration Council, an immigrant rights advocacy group wrote. However, people who express fear of persecution if they return to their home countries are referred to immigration officers who determine whether the immigrant is eligible for asylum or other deportation protections. Immigrants who pass the "credible fear" screening are referred to an immigration court where they can make their case.

"The courts have never said that expedited removal negates migrants due process rights," Yon Ebright said.

In the past, people were placed in expedited removal if they were within 100 miles of the border and within two weeks of their entry. In January, Trump expanded expedited removal for anyone who can’t prove they’ve been in the U.S. for more than two years. 

Although expedited removal limits people’s due process protections, it does not eliminate them. "There are no exceptions to due process," Bush-Joseph said. 

Our ruling

A social media user said "In 1996, Congress specifically authorized the executive branch to conduct non-judicial deportations NOT SUBJECT TO DUE PROCESS."

All noncitizens in the U.S. have due process rights regardless of their legal status or how they entered the U.S. 

During the Clinton administration, Congress established a fast-track deportation process called expedited removal that allows for deportations without going to immigration court.

Immigrants have fewer due process protections under expedited removal, but the process is not exempt. People are screened, are notified of deportation and can contest the deportation if they have a well-founded fear of persecution. Legal experts say there are no exceptions to due process rights, regardless of immigrants’ legal status or how they entered the country.

We rate this claim False.