A federal judge has issued a temporary pause on the Trump administration accelerating refugee status revocations. Federal immigration authorities tried to cut the amount of time that refugees have to contest decisions issued to remove their legal status from 30 days to 10.
District of Massachusetts Judge Julia Kobick enjoined the federal government on Tuesday. In particular, she said the Trump administration must stop enforcing any notices to terminate immigration statuses issued between the date the most recent policy went into effect on Oct. 14, to Oct 27, the date of this decision.
“The individuals to whom such notices to terminate were issued shall not be required to respond. … Defendants are prohibited from terminating those individuals’ refugee status based on failure to respond to any notice to respond issued during that time,” she wrote.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the Boston federal court. The resettlement groups and several impacted refugees sued to stop the Trump administration from using three policies to stop refugees from obtaining green cards, re-assessing their status with new court hearings and speeding up the process of ending their legal immigration status. The final one has been enjoined.
The 30-day response period has been the norm for more than four decades.
“This temporary ruling provides immediate relief to thousands of refugees across the country,” said Jeff Thielman, executive director of International Institute of New England, one of the plaintiffs.
“We are seeking to permanently invalidate the rule, alongside two other policies that indefinitely freeze green card applications and subject lawfully admitted refugees to mass re-vetting,” he said.
The impact of these policies has resulted in people being blocked on their path to citizenship after years in the U.S. despite extensive, years-long vetting. It has also caused termination of work authorization. People put into removal proceedings face indefinite detention and deportation.
“This lawsuit is yet another frivolous attempt to disrupt the Trump administration’s commitment to enforce our country’s immigration laws as intended by Congress,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Zach Kahler. The agency is one of the defendants, along with its larger organization, the Department of Homeland Security.
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services found an alarming erosion of screening and vetting measures under the Biden Administration in order to rush processing and maximize the number of refugees admitted to the United States,” he said.
Two of the Massachusetts refugee organizations that GBH News spoke to on Monday represented at least 2,000 impacted individuals. According to the federal government’s own figures, about 113,000 refugees have pending applications for permanent residency, and the new termination rule could affect as many as 186,000 refugee cases.
“We are grateful the court recognized the emergency nature of this issue and stepped in to ensure refugees are not stripped of their status while the court considers our case,” said Hussein Elbakri, senior staff attorney of U.S. litigation at the International Refugee Assistance Project, another plaintiff. “We look forward to pushing for full relief and stopping this unlawful attack on refugees.”
