WASHINGTON DC, February 27, 2021 – On Wednesday, February 24, President Biden lifted former President Trump’s immigration visa ban. The Biden administration flatly rejected the previous administration’s proclamation that immigrant entry during the pandemic posed a risk to the US economy. “On the contrary, it harms the United States by, among other things, preventing certain family members of US citizens and legal permanent residents from joining their families here,” wrote the Biden administration. “It also hurts industries in the US that employ talent from around the world. And it harms people selected to be given the opportunity to apply for immigrant visas and people who have also received an immigrant visa under the Diversity Visa Lottery for Fiscal Year 2020. “
While President Biden has now revoked Proclamation 10014 that prevented immigrants from entering the country, he has taken no action to lift the entry ban on non-immigrant temporary workers.
Former President Trump first signed his proclamation on cessation of immigration on April 22, 2020. On June 22nd, he expanded the scope and extended it to the end of 2020. On December 31st, he extended it again to March 31, 2021. The ban stopped practically all legal immigration – hundreds of thousands of families separated, businesses plunged into chaos and economic Recovery disturbed. More than 120,000 family visas and thousands of diversity visas were lost in fiscal 2020.
In July last year, our civil rights coalition made up of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Justice Action Center (JAC) and the Innovation Law Lab, with the volunteer support of Mayer Brown LLP Gomez against Trump, filed the first lawsuit against the entire immigration ban Trump administration. For the past few months we have fought in court for all of our plaintiffs, who originally included children at risk of “aging”. Today these are family-based visa applicants, diversity visa winners and companies that employ temporary workers without a migrant background.
“I’m really looking forward to spending time with my wife again. After so much waiting, we can finally begin our American dream together, ”says Nazif Alam, a Gomez plaintiff against Trump, who is permanently based in the US and has been separated from his wife in Bangladesh for more than two years. “It is our diversity and our ability to bring together great people from around the world that makes this nation strong. It’s great that the federal government is finally helping families reunite. “
“Finally! A new ray of hope is being reborn. I am filled with extreme, indescribable joy! This is a great relief and the beginning of our dreams will come true.” Says Ijeoma Golden Kouadio, another plaintiff of Gomez against Trump, and a winner of a diversity -Visa from Ivory Coast, who wrote in the Washington Post last week about her situation. “We hope to arrive in the US as soon as possible so that our children have a better education and a better future. We thank all the teams, who took part in the fight. And most of all, thank you, Mr. President, for making our American dream come true. “
We celebrate today’s victory for those who will now be able to enter the United States as Congress intended. However, Proclamation 10052, which also bans nonimmigrant visas – or which are temporarily given permission to travel to the US in various categories – has not been repealed. We will continue to fight for the rights of all of our plaintiffs, including nonimmigrant visa holders and employers who are excluded from today’s regulation.
“That ban has been an avoidable tragedy that has kept fathers and mothers from children, spouses from spouses, and has exacerbated the stress and anxiety of many families over the past year. AILA welcomes the decision to lift the ban and allow long-lived families to legally reunite. With nearly half a million people waiting in the arrears, getting them all processed on time will take an extraordinary feat of government coordination and many are still at risk of losing their visas, ”said Jesse Bless, director of federal litigation at AILA . “The President’s job is only partially done, however: the other visa ban under Proclamation 10052 continues to block the entry of foreign temporary workers who represent vital United States interests, and the health insurance proclamation is an unlawful barrier to entry for immigrants. America’s promising beacon can only shine brightly if the government completely lifts all objectionable bans from former President Trump. “
Esther Sung, Senior Counsel at Justice Action Center, said, “We are delighted to have our clients and the thousands of families who can now reunite in the United States because President Biden has repealed the proclamation. It was a hateful holdover from the previous administration, and President Biden rightly recognized that it harmed families and businesses in the United States, as well as the values of our nation. As the Biden administration further recognized, “US industry draws on talent from around the world” – we are now calling on the President to lift the ban on the entry of non-immigrant foreign temporary workers who can help the US economy. “
“Lifting the immigration ban was the right thing to do. These families and workers are an integral part of American history. They are critical to the success and survival of our communities and will help accelerate our recovery. Fortunately, the parents, grandparents, children and siblings of citizens and permanent residents harmed by the previous government’s ban can now focus on uniting and healing, ”said Stephen Manning, Founder and Executive Director of the Innovation Law Lab.
More information about the lawsuit, including how to file cases, can be found here.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), founded in 1946, is the national association of immigration lawyers founded to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policies, and promote the quality of immigration and citizenship law and practice improve and promote the professional development of its members.
Justice Action Center (JAC) is a new non-profit advocating for greater justice for immigrant communities by combining litigation and storytelling. There is an enormous unmet need for immigrant communities in the process landscape. JAC is committed to providing additional litigation resources to address unmet needs in currently underserved areas. There’s also untapped potential in how litigation can be combined with digital strategies to empower customers and change the caustic narrative about immigrants.
The Innovation Law Lab is a nonprofit that uses the legal profession, technology and law to fight for the justice of immigrants and refugees. By adopting technology in the fight for justice, the Innovation Law Lab enables advocates to scale its impact and provide effective representation for immigrants in detention centers and in hostile jurisdictions across the country.
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