The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 that the Trump administration can resume using across the country a fast-track deportation process that's usually reserved for illegal immigrants apprehended shortly after crossing the southern U.S. border. 

Under federal law, officials can depart people who have been in the country for less than two years without hearings in immigration courts. 

A lower court had ruled in August that the administration's efforts to use the procedure likely violated immigrants' due process rights and risked wrongfully deporting people who are legally residing in the U.S., the New York Times reported. 

In the appeals court's ruling on Tuesday, the three-judge panel found that the practice doesn't violate immigrants' rights when the process is expanded to the outer limits of what's allowed under law. Congress had delegated to the executive branch decisions on which immigrants would be deported under the expedited process, the majority opinion stated, and different administrations had expanded or reduced the process.