The order was issued Thursday by District Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California.
The lawsuit against the department of commerce and the department of homeland security was brought by companies represented by the National Manufacturers Association, the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and TechNet.
The ruling imposes an immediate suspension of a series of visa restrictions that prevent manufacturers from filling crucial and hard-to-fill jobs to support economic recovery, growth and innovation when they are needed most, the National Manufacturers Association said.
In June, Trump had issued an executive order temporarily banning the issuance of new H-1B visas and other foreign visas, including H-2B, J and L visas, until the end of the year.
The president had argued that the United States needs to save and protect jobs for its domestic workforce at a time when millions of them lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Several information technology companies and other US firms, and their representatives, had expressed their opposition to the temporary ban.
Manufacturers went to court to challenge the ban on the administration of certain visas because the restrictions undermined the industry at a critical time and conflicted with the law, said NAM Senior Vice President and General Counsel Linda Kelly.
“We compete with the rest of the world to find and develop the best talent to support innovation in our industry. Today’s decision is a temporary victory for manufacturers committed to building that innovation in the United States, ”he said.
In his order, the judge said that the president exceeded his authority in this matter.
“Congressional delegation of authority in the context of immigration… does not give the president unbridled authority to set national policy regarding the employment of nonimmigrant aliens. Such a finding would render the President’s Article II powers practically superfluous, ”Justice White wrote in his order of 25 pagers.
The judge noted that the text of Article I and more than two centuries of legislative practice and judicial precedents make it clear that the Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to establish immigration policy.
If the fact that immigrants come from other countries inherently made their admission of foreign relations subject to the power of the President’s Article II, then this entire law would be superfluous, the judge said.
“In fact, there must be some measure of restriction on the presidential authority in the domestic sphere so as not to make the executive a completely monarchical power in the context of immigration, an area within a clear legislative prerogative.
Such unfettered authority would be contrary to the explicit delegation of powers by Congress in foreign affairs and national security, “White said.
Judge White’s ruling is different from an order approved by District Judge Amit Mehta of the District of Columbia in August, who ruled that he does not have the power to prohibit the ban while litigation is ongoing. “The wisdom of the president’s decision to address these changing circumstances by restricting the entry of certain classes of foreigners is a political decision that the judiciary is not well equipped to assess,” he had said.
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