SAN DIEGO (AP) – President Donald Trump on Thursday extended pandemic-related green card and work visa bans to large groups of applicants through March 31, while a federal appeals court sided with a rule requiring new immigrants to have their own health insurance. .
The twin events of the last day of 2020 summarize how Trump has made America’s immigration policy more restrictive without the support of Congress. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to undo many of Trump’s actions, but it is unclear how quickly and even to what extent.
Federal judges have limited the impact of visa bans related to the pandemic, which were due to expire on Thursday. Biden, who is now forced to decide when and whether to lift them after taking office on January 20, does not specifically address the issue on his immigration platform.
Biden also doesn’t directly address the health insurance requirement on his platform, and a lawyer who sued over the policy on Thursday urged him to immediately rescind it.
In April, Trump imposed a ban on green cards issued abroad that targets primarily family members of people already in the United States.
After a surprisingly cold reception from immigration hawks, the administration went much further in June by adding H-1B visas, which are widely used by American and Indian tech company workers and their families; H-2B visas for seasonal non-agricultural workers; J-1 visas for cultural exchanges; and L-1 visas for managers and other key employees of multinational corporations.
Trump said the measures would protect American jobs in an economy ravaged by the pandemic, while business groups said they would hamper the recovery.
“The effects of COVID-19 on the United States labor market and the health of American communities is a subject of constant national concern,” said Trump’s proclamation, highlighting the growing number of cases and state restrictions on companies .
By contrast, the administration’s edict to immediately expel asylum seekers and other people crossing the border illegally from Mexico was justified as containing the coronavirus, although reports by The Associated Press and others found that government scientists did not. they saw evidence of it. A temporary ban on non-essential travel across the Mexican and Canadian borders was also passed for public health reasons.
In October, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the work visa ban could not be enforced against the suing groups and their members, who represent much of the American economy: the US Chamber of Commerce, The National Manufacturers Association, the Retail Federation, TechNet industry group, and Intrax Inc., which administers cultural exchange programs.
In December, a federal judge in Oakland, California, prevented the green card ban from taking effect against the families of 181 US citizens and legal residents who filed a lawsuit.
In its ruling issued Thursday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to clear the way for Trump’s requirement that immigrants have health insurance. New immigrants must show that they can get coverage within 30 days and pay their medical bills. A federal judge prevented the rule from taking effect almost immediately after it was announced in October 2019.
Trump-appointed Judge Daniel P Collins wrote that the president acted within his authority, relying largely on the Supreme Court ruling that upheld Trump’s travel ban to several predominantly Muslim countries. He was joined by Judge Jay Bybee, who was appointed by President George W. Bush.
Judge A Wallace Tashima, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, disagreed, calling the policy “a major overhaul of this nation’s immigration laws without the involvement of Congress – an unprecedented and broad exercise of unilateral executive power.” . Esther Sung, a lawyer for the Justice Action Center, an advocacy group that sued to block the rule, said she was disappointed.
The ruling “makes clear that the Biden administration must act quickly to rescind all xenophobic presidential proclamations by President Trump, including this ban on healthcare,” he said.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
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