Federal judge blocks Trump policies that halted immigration processing
PROVIDENCE, RI: A federal judge on Friday, June 5, struck down a series of Trump-era immigration policies that had halted the processing of applications from 39 banned countries, forcing the immigration agencies to process applications again.
The policies were enacted after a deadly attack on National Guard members.
Notably, the Trump administration had barred the processing of immigration applications from countries covered by the travel ban around last Thanksgiving, freezing green card applications and triggering widespread cancellations of naturalization ceremonies.
Judge says Trump left lives in legal limbo
In the observation, the Rhode Island-based US District Judge John McConnell found that all of the actions were unlawful.
“More than six months ago, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (‘USCIS’) enacted a series of policies that threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” McConnell wrote in the 135-page ruling.
“USCIS’s hold on adjudications cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth.”
The decision to stop the processing of immigration applications had threatened to push some immigrants into the country legally on time-limited visas to overstay the bounds of their status.
The judge, in his ruling, further said that Trump’s decision was designed to unwind the lives of those who lawfully immigrated to the US.
Judge says Trump admin acted improperly
“In ruling on these motions, the Court is reminded of a line often repeated in discussions around immigration policy: If people wish to immigrate to the United States, they ought to ‘follow the law’ and ‘do things the right way.’ This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that,” he wrote.
“But the rule of law has to apply to everyone equally and, as evident here, USCIS has neither ‘followed the law’ nor ‘done things the right way.’ Indeed, the agency has violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering.”
The ruling means the administration must resume processing immigration applications and restart naturalization ceremonies for thousands of immigrants waiting to become US citizens.
“For months, we have heard from Afghan allies whose citizenship ceremonies were canceled, work permits expired while waiting for decisions, green card applications stopped moving, and families were left in uncertainty despite doing everything the right way,” Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, said in a statement as the ruling was swiftly celebrated by immigration advocates.
