The judge criticized the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for disregarding the law
US District chief judge John McConnell Jr. has struck down an immigration policy enacted by the Trump administration that he said “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” reported the Associated Press.
The policy came into force after two National Guard members were shot last year. It blocked the issuance of final decisions on the asylum, work permit, green card, and citizenship applications of immigrants from 39 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries.
In his Friday June 5 decision, McConnell described the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ actions as “contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious” in legal terms, according to a statement published by AP News.
“In enacting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making,” McConnell wrote in his judgment, a snippet of which was published by AP News.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s senior director of government relations, Shev Dalal-Dheini, McConnell’s decision covers all pending USCIS cases involving individuals hailing from the countries in the travel ban.
“It is an important legal victory to ensure that legal immigration pathways remain open and that USCIS is held accountable to doing their congressionally mandated job of adjudicating applications,” Dalal-Dheini said in a statement published by AP News.
The decision will not impact immigration judges who grant asylum to immigrants detained at the border.
The Trump administration had filed a motion to dismiss the suit, claiming that the executive branch had authority over immigration policy as granted by Congress; this authority covered “the entry of aliens into the United States as well as discretion within the statutory scheme to confer as well as withdraw various discretionary benefits,” according to a statement published by AP News.
“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 guardrails necessary to ensure consistent, non-arbitrary, and individualized decisionmaking consistent with federal law,” the administration wrote in the brief, a snippet of which was published by AP News.
The court rejected the motion to dismiss.
“This ruling sets a powerful precedent that the administration cannot ignore the law as laid down by Congress and cannot arbitrarily bar immigration benefits on the basis of national origin by fiat,” said Jamal Abdi, National Iranian American Council president, in a statement published by AP News. “Fortunately, this is still a nation of laws, and those who uphold America’s values have recourse to challenge and push back on such discriminatory, arbitrary policies.”
According to AP News, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday June 6, the Public Integrity Project also filed a federal suit against the Trump administration seeking the cancellation of the UFC show scheduled to take place on the White House South Lawn on June 14. The suit, which was filed on behalf of two Virginia residents, claims that the administration unlawfully authorized the event, breaching National Park Service regulations banning sporting events on federal parklands.
