Trump administration suffers double legal setback over immigration policy
Courts and Democratic-led states mount legal challenges against Trump administration visa and green card limits.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has suffered two setbacks to its immigration agenda as a federal judge halted proposed visa caps and dozens of Democratic-led states launched legal challenges against broader residency restrictions.
A US federal judge on Monday blocked the administration from imposing fixed time limits on how long foreign students and journalists can remain in the country without applying for extensions. At the same time, a broad coalition of states filed suit to stop a separate federal regulation that would allow immigration authorities to deny green cards to immigrants who make lawful use of public benefits.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulation was scheduled to take effect on Tuesday before US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Boston granted an injunction requested by a coalition of trade unions and higher education advocacy groups.
Two lawsuits were filed in a Manhattan federal court on Monday to derail a DHS regulation scheduled to take effect on Friday. The measure seeks to broaden the criteria by which immigration officers can deem applicants inadmissible as a “public charge”, a legal standard historically applied to individuals likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence.