In her decision, Kobick granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed on behalf of about 200 people from 20 countries, including Iran, Haiti, Venezuela, and Syria. The plaintiffs sued after being told that the government would no longer process their immigration-related benefits applications.
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration can no longer enforce restrictions that make it harder for people on the president’s travel ban list to obtain green cards and work permits.
According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick ultimately concluded that the administration’s practices, at least in their current form, are both discriminatory and unlawful.
In her decision, Kobick granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed on behalf of about 200 people from 20 countries, including Iran, Haiti, Venezuela, and Syria. The plaintiffs sued after being told that the government would no longer process their immigration-related benefits applications.
The lawsuit, filed in December, targets a series of policies that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began implementing late last year, broadly affecting asylum claims, green card applications, and work authorization cases. The agency has also put a general hold on the processing of immigration benefits for people from the 39 countries subject to a full or partial travel ban by the Trump administration.
Before implementing its current policies, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services introduced additional guidance that treats the nationality of people form restricted countries as a “significant negative factor” in the adjudication of applications.
Kobick concluded that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in proving that these policies violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s prohibition against nationality-based discrimination. She also said that USCIS’s later decision to cease processing certain immigration petitions, including naturalization applications, was “contrary to Congress’s command that the agency issue decisions on such applications.”
Kobick’s ruling prohibits USCIS from enforcing its allegedly discriminatory policies against at least 22 plaintiffs who detailed how they were harmed by such policies.
Jim Hackling, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said that the decision appears to be the first issued by a judge nationally to address the “significant negative factor” policy alongside the related hold on the processing of benefits applications.
“USCIS wants to make it harder for people to receive an immigration benefit if they are from one of the 39 countries, even though Congress has never allowed them to,” Hackling told Reuters.
Sources
Stuck in limbo: millions of professionals risk losing legal status under Trump pause
US judge rejects Trump administration’s halt on immigration applications
Join the conversation!