In a major blow to US President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration stance, a federal judge ruled on Thursday that policies making it harder for people from countries on Trump’s travel ban list to get green cards and work permits are discriminatory and unlawful. Julia Kobick, US District Judge from Boston, made the statement as she issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit by around 200 people from 20 countries, including Iran, Haiti, Venezuela, and Syria, who sued over a halt on the processing of their immigration-related applications.
The lawsuit was filed in December and targeted policies of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which were adopted in the beginning of November and affected applications by immigrants seeking asylum, green cards, and work authorisation. The policies led to a pause on the processing of applications of people from 39 countries that were the subject of full or partial travel bans imposed by Trump. According to this policy, the nationality of people from those countries are treated as a “significant negative factor” while reviewing the applications.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services is overseen by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Kobick, who was appointed by the preceding Biden administration, said that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in proving that the policy collided with the Immigration and Nationality Act’s ban against nationality-based discrimination.
She also mentioned that the halt on reviewing asylum and naturalisation applications was “contrary to Congress’ command that the agency issue decisions on such applications.”
The judge blocked the agency from enforcing the policies against 22 plaintiffs, who had provided declarations explaining how they were affected by them, and addressed the parties to discuss whether her order should apply to the remaining petitioners.
Jim Hacking, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, welcomed the ruling, praising Kobick for nationally addressing the “signigicant negative factor” policy alongside the suspension on the processing of 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,” he said.
The DHS is yet to comment on the order.
