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Law360 (April 27, 2020, 4:55 PM EDT) -- The American Immigration Lawyers Association, along with the Innovation Law Lab and a certified class of green card beneficiaries, has asked an Oregon federal court to restore emergency consular and visa processing services that were shuttered by President Donald Trump's green card ban.
The two nonprofits, on behalf of green card applicants and their U.S. citizen family members, said Saturday that Trump's ban, issued last week and barring foreigners seeking green cards from coming to the U.S. during the coronavirus outbreak, puts child class members at risk of losing their places in the visa processing line.
If the children in the lawsuit can't access emergency services, they may become too old to receive a green card as children of a U.S. citizen and will no longer be able to reunite with their families in the U.S., the nonprofits said.
"As time ticks by, the denial of access to currently available emergency consular processing services endangers these class members' immigration status and frustrates the relief afforded in this case," they said.
The two groups asked the court to temporarily halt Trump's green card ban for 21 days so child class members can use emergency visa processing services to request green cards before they lose their child relative preference status.
The nonprofits filed the current suit in October challenging Trump's executive order barring immigrants who lack health insurance or can't prove that they can afford health care from receiving visas to enter the country.
An Oregon federal judge found in November that Trump's order was likely illegal and blocked the policy from taking effect for the remainder of the lawsuit.
Earlier this month, the judge granted the green card beneficiaries in the current suit class certification, ruling that they showed more than 40 individuals could be hurt by Trump's policy warranting that the case proceeds as a class.
Then last week, Trump issued his green card ban to protect Americans who lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The ban exempted spouses and minor children of American citizens, foreign investors, health care workers and people with already approved green cards, but it did not preserve green card applicants' ability to access emergency consular and visa processing services.
Esther Sung, an attorney for the class members, said in a Saturday statement that the green card ban is another attempt by Trump to bypass Congress to implement his immigration agenda.
"President Trump claims he signed it in order to protect the economy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, but the reality is that our economic recovery will depend on immigrants," Sung said.
Counsel for the government did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The certified class is represented by Stephen Manning, Tess Hellgren and Nadia Dahab of Innovation Law Lab; Karen C. Tumlin and Esther H. Sung of the Justice Action Center; Jesse Bless of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; and Scott D. Stein and Kevin M. Fee of Sidley Austin LLP.
The federal government is represented by Brian C. Ward, August E. Flentje and Courtney E. Moran of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division.
The case is Doe et al. v. Trump et al., case number 3:19-cv-1743, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
--Additional reporting by Suzanne Monyak and Daniel Siegal. Editing by Peter Rozovsky.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
