Federal judge overturns Trump administration’s immigration policies

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday overturned a Trump administration policy adopted after the shootings of two National Guard members that made it harder for immigrants from dozens of countries to stay and enter the United States.

In a ruling sharply criticizing the administration, Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. said the policy “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indefinite legal limbo,” and he accused U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law.

“By adopting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: asserts statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations she must provide; acts without taking into account the trust interests of the candidates which it must take into account; and justifies his actions with pretense “national security” concerns that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that he is prohibited from allowing to influence his decision-making,” he wrote. “In legal terms, this means that USCIS’s actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Policies adopted after the National Guard shooting last year meant that immigrants from 39 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East were “categorically barred” from receiving final decisions on, among other things, their applications for asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship.

“This decision reaffirms a basic principle: The federal government cannot close legal immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on their origin,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs in the case. “These illegal policies have caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylum seekers and communities across the country who have been left in uncertainty, unable to work, access protections or move forward with their lives. »

The policies apply to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, which approves applications for immigrants who want to work and become citizens. The agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, often grants asylum, but only to those who are already in the United States when they apply. Immigration judges grant asylum to people arrested at the border; the decision does not affect them, nor do the policies that triggered the lawsuit.

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The blanket ruling would impact all pending cases at USCIS involving people from countries covered by the travel ban, not just those included in the lawsuit, said Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“This is an important legal victory to ensure that legal immigration pathways remain open and that USCIS is held accountable for carrying out its congressionally mandated job of reviewing applications,” she said.

It’s part of an ongoing effort by the administration to tighten U.S. travel and immigration entry standards, which critics say unfairly prevent travel by people from a wide range of countries. The administration suggested it would expand restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard soldiers over Thanksgiving weekend.

In its motion to dismiss, which the court denied, the government argued that Congress gave the executive branch broad authority over immigration policy, including “the entry of aliens into the United States as well as the discretion, under the statutory scheme, to grant and withdraw various discretionary benefits.”

“This case rests on a remarkable premise: that a federal court should prevent an agency from issuing the very policy guidance that provides government personnel with the necessary safeguards to ensure consistent, nonarbitrary, and individualized decision-making consistent with federal law,” the government wrote in its brief.

Immigration groups celebrated the decision.

“This decision sets a powerful precedent that the administration cannot ignore the law as established by Congress and cannot arbitrarily bar immigration benefits based on national origin by executive order,” said Jamal Abdi, president of the Iranian American National Council. “Fortunately, we are still in a nation of laws, and those who defend American values ​​have recourse to challenge and push back against such discriminatory and arbitrary policies.”

Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who leads a coalition that supports Afghan resettlement efforts called #AfghanEvac, said the decision was a “significant victory for the rule of law and for thousands of Afghan allies and other immigrants who have complied with all the demands asked of them.”

“Just this week in Dallas and Fort Worth, we met with people who feared losing their jobs because delays in renewing work permits threatened their livelihoods, families who postponed education, travel and homeownership because they didn’t know when their cases would be resolved, and future Americans who expected to become citizens only to have their applications stall without explanation,” VanDiver said.

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