A US court has ruled that Trump’s immigration restrictions on 39 countries are unlawful
This is according to Reuters.
Court criticises immigration service’s decision
US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, ruled that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had exceeded its authority by introducing the relevant rules. According to the judge, these restrictions have left people from dozens of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East in a state of legal limbo. He noted that the applicants had followed the procedures required by law, yet had waited for months for their documents to be processed, which the immigration service had refused to do. The judge stated that such decisions had been made without proper legal grounds.
What caused the restrictions
The new USCIS rules were part of the Trump administration’s tightening of immigration policy following an attack on National Guard personnel in Washington, for which an immigrant from Afghanistan was blamed. Following this, Trump announced his intention to tighten immigration controls and expanded the list of countries subject to full or partial entry restrictions. The list included, in particular, Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, Somalia, Venezuela and Syria. The administration justified these measures on the grounds of vetting and national security. The plaintiffs in the case argued that the de facto suspension of document processing deprived people of access to lawful immigration procedures. The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment on the court’s decision.
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