US President Donald Trump arrives for a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi on February 25, 2020. (REUTERS / Adnan Abidi)
US District Judge Amit P Mehta in his order Wednesday said that Indian nationals, who are now stranded abroad during trips to India when the borders were closed, are unlikely to win their case by challenging the ban proclamation. travel of Trump.
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Washington: An Indian-American federal judge rejected an appeal by 169 Indian nationals who had challenged President Donald Trump’s proclamation banning H-1B specialized occupation visa foreigners from entering the US until the end of the year.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialized occupations that require theoretical or technical experience. Tech companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
US District Judge Amit P Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in his order Wednesday that Indian nationals, who are now stranded abroad during trips to India When the borders were closed, they are unlikely to win their case by challenging the travel ban proclamation. of Trump.
The 169 Indian nationals in their lawsuit had applied for an order directing the Secretary of State and the United States consulates to “process, prosecute, and make final decisions on the Plaintiffs’ DS-160 visa applications. But require such speedy processing. it would be an exercise in futility when the whistleblower is not eligible to enter the country until January 1, 2021, at the very least, “Mehta said.
Such an order would risk diverting limited resources from visa applicants who are eligible under an exception to the proclamation, and could create substantial confusion for visa recipients attempting to enter the country only to be denied at ports of entry. , said.
Mehta said that on the merits, the court has already determined that Indian nationals who have filed the lawsuit and are trapped in India are unlikely to be successful in their ultra vires challenge of the proclamation, and are likely to be successful in his challenge to the Administrative Procedure Law. that their suspension of the processing of their visas pursuant to the Proclamation is arbitrary and capricious.
The lawsuit was filed by Indian nationals who recently resided in the United States with legal nonimmigrant status under temporary work requests approved by the Department of Homeland Security.
For various reasons, they traveled to India and must now receive visas to return to the United States. Indian nationals with H-1B visas alleged that the United States consular offices, acting under the direction of the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State, have withheld adjudication of their visa applications pursuant to the issued Presidential Proclamation 10052 recently by the president (dated June 22, 2020).
The proclamation suspends the entry of foreigners within certain categories of non-immigrant visas. In his 11-page order, Judge Mehta at the same time noted that visa applicants are likely to convince the court that the Trump administration should continue to process their visas despite entry restrictions.
But given that they are unlikely to secure an end to those entry barriers, requiring the US State Department to process their visa applications “would be a futile exercise,” he said. “Such an order would risk diverting limited resources from visa applicants who are eligible under an exception to the proclamation, and could create substantial confusion for visa recipients attempting to enter the country only to be denied at ports of entry. “Mehta wrote.
Attorneys for Indian citizens have filed a notice stating their plans to appeal the ruling to the DC Circuit.
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