Federal immigration laws set forth procedures governing the exclusion and removal of non-U.S. nationals (aliens) who do not meet specified criteria regarding their entry or presence within the United States. Typically, aliens within the United States may not be removed without due process. Commensurate with these constitutional protections, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) generally affords an alien whose removal is sought with certain procedural guarantees, including the right to written notice of the charge of removability, to seek counsel, to appear at a hearing before an immigration judge (IJ), to present evidence, to appeal an adverse decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), and to seek judicial review. Congress, however, has broad authority over the admission of aliens seeking to enter the United States. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the government may exclude an alien seeking to enter this country without affording him the traditional due process protections that otherwise govern formal removal proceedings; instead, an alien seeking initial entry is entitled only to those procedural protections that Congress expressly authorized. Consistent with this broad authority, Section 235(b)(1) of the INA provides for the expedited removal of arriving aliens who do not have valid entry documents or have attempted to gain their admission by fraud or misrepresentation. Under this streamlined removal procedure, which Congress established through the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996, such aliens may be summarily removed without a hearing or further review. In limited circumstances, however, an alien subject to expedited removal may be entitled to certain procedural protections before he may be removed from the United States. For example, an alien who expresses a fear of persecution may obtain administrative review of his claim and, if the review determines that his fear is credible, the alien will be placed in "formal" removal proceedings where he can pursue asylum and related protections. Additionally, an alien may seek administrative review of a claim that he is a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident (LPR), admitted refugee, or asylee. Unaccompanied alien children also are not subject to expedited removal. In addition to providing for expedited removal of certain arriving aliens, INA Section 235(b)(1) also confers the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the ability to expand the use of expedited removal to aliens present in the United States without being admitted or paroled if they have been in the country less than two years and do not have valid entry documents or have attempted to gain their admission by fraud or misrepresentation. In practice, the government has employed expedited removal only to (1) arriving aliens; (2) aliens who arrived in the United States by sea within the last two years, who have not been admitted or paroled by immigration authorities; and (3) aliens found in the United States within 100 miles of the border within 14 days of entering the country, who have not been admitted or paroled by immigration authorities. Nevertheless, expedited removal is a major component of immigration enforcement, and in recent years, it has been one of the most regularly employed means by which immigration authorities remove persons from the United States. Furthermore, in January 2017, President Trump issued an executive order directing DHS to apply expedited removal within the broader limitations of the statute. To date, however, DHS has not yet implemented this policy. This report provides an overview of the statutory and regulatory framework that governs expedited removal under INA Section 235(b)(1). The report also highlights the exceptions to expedited removal, including provisions that permit an alien to seek review of an asylum claim before he may be removed. Finally, the report addresses the scope of judicial review of an expedited removal order, some of the legal challenges that have been raised to the expedited removal process, and briefly considers potential legal issues that may arise if expedited removal were expanded to cover additional categories of aliens present in the United States. A glossary of some terms used frequently throughout this report can be found in Appendix A . The Supreme Court has long recognized the federal government's authority "to expel or exclude aliens" from the United States. The Court has described this authority as a "fundamental act of sovereignty" that stems not only from Congress's legislative power, but also from "the executive power to control the foreign affairs of the nation." The Court also has repeatedly recognized that an alien's admission into the United States is a privilege, but the alien lacks a vested right to be admitted into the country. Guided by these principles, the Supreme Court has held that the government's decision to exclude an alien from entering the United States generally lies beyond the scope of judicial review. Moreover, the Court has determined, "the decisions of executive or administrative officers, acting within powers expressly conferred by [C]ongress, are due process of law" for aliens seeking to enter this country. Thus, the government's decision to deny entry is often deemed "final and conclusive," and immigration officials are fully "entrusted with the duty of specifying the procedures" for implementing that authority. Initially, the Supreme Court held that the government's broad authority covered not only the expulsion of foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States, but also aliens who were already within the territorial boundaries of this country. The Court explained that "[t]he right of a nation to expel or deport foreigners who have not been naturalized, or taken any steps towards becoming citizens of the country, rests upon the same grounds, and is as absolute and unqualified, as the right to prohibit and prevent their entrance into the country." Gradually, the Supreme Court modified its position regarding the reach of the government's authority. For example, the Court determined that lawfully admitted aliens were entitled to Fifth Amendment due process protections in formal removal proceedings. The Court explained that "'once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders.'" In these circumstances, the alien is "entitled to notice of the nature of the charge and a hearing at least before an executive or administrative tribunal." The Supreme Court eventually went further and declared that all aliens who have entered the United States—including those who entered unlawfully—may not be removed without due process. The Court declared that aliens physically present in the United States, regardless of their legal status, are recognized as "persons" guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Consequently, the Court reasoned, "[e]ven one whose presence in this country is unlawful, involuntary, or transitory is entitled to that constitutional protection." Although the Supreme Court has afforded due process protections to aliens physically present in the United States, the Court has consistently held that aliens seeking to enter the country may not avail themselves of those same protections. The Court has reasoned that, although "aliens who have once passed through our gates, even illegally, may be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law," an alien "on the threshold of initial entry stands on a different footing" because, theoretically, he is outside of the geographic boundaries of the United States, and thus beyond the scope of constitutional protection. This distinction, known as the "entry fiction" doctrine, allows courts to treat an alien seeking admission as though he had never entered the country, even if he is, technically, physically within U.S. territory, such as at a border checkpoint or airport. In those circumstances, the alien is legally considered to be "standing on the threshold of entry," and outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. By contrast, once an alien "enters" the country, "the legal circumstance changes," and he may become subject to constitutional rights and protections. The Supreme Court has applied this principle not only with respect to aliens seeking entry into the United States, but also to aliens seeking entry who are detained within the country's borders pending determinations of their admissibility. For example, in United States ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy , the German wife of a U.S. citizen challenged her exclusion without a hearing under the War Brides Act. The German national was detained at Ellis Island during her proceedings, and, therefore, technically within U.S. territory. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court held that the government had the "inherent executive power" to deny her admission, and that "[w]hatever the procedure authorized by Congress is, it is due process as far as an alien denied entry is concerned." Similarly, in Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei , an alien detained on Ellis Island for more than 21 months argued that the government's decision to deny admission without a hearing violated due process. Citing "the power to expel or exclude aliens as a fundamental sovereign attribute exercised by the Government's political departments," the Court determined that the Executive was authorized to deny entry without a hearing, and that the decision was not subject to judicial review. Further, the Court held, although the alien had "temporary harborage" inside the United States pending his exclusion proceedings, he had not effected an "entry" for purposes of immigration law, and could be "treated as if stopped at the border." Therefore, existing Supreme Court jurisprudence recognizes that the federal government has broad plenary power over the admission and exclusion of aliens seeking to enter the United States, and may deny admission without affording due process protections such as the right to a hearing. Aliens seeking entry are thus generally entitled only to those protections that Congress explicitly authorized. Conversely, an alien who has entered the United States is generally entitled to due process protections prior to removal. Under the "entry fiction" doctrine, however, aliens who are detained within the United States pending a determination of their admissibility may be "treated, for constitutional purposes" as though they have not entered this country.