By Roque Planas

When Border Patrol officers kicked Maria out of the country, they didn’t have to go before a judge or allow her to see a lawyer. They only had to file an expedited removal order to deport her. She was a U.S. citizen, but U.S. officials didn’t believe her because the only language she spoke was Spanish. It took her years of legal wrangling to return.

Two other women, deported in a similarly speedy fashion, were gang-raped and shot after they were deported to Guatemala.

These and other cases are detailed in a report published Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the U.S. government routinely deports people with legitimate legal claims to stay in the country.

The report only gives the first names of the interviewees.

Based on a review of 136 cases, the ACLU report says the transition toward summary removal procedures since the 1990s has made it common for authorities to wrongly deport asylum seekers, people with strong U.S. ties and, in at least one case, a U.S. citizen.

Prior to a 1996 law called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the vast majority of those issued a deportation order faced a hearing with a judge, the report says. Now, some 83 percent of deportation orders are issued through rapid-fire removal processes that don’t involve a judge.

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