Motion includes 27 declarations from individual and organizational plaintiffs, economics and public health experts, and an organization representing hundreds of major employers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON D.C. –– Late on Friday, July 31, litigators from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Justice Action Center (JAC) and Innovation Law Lab, with pro bono support from Mayer Brown LLP, filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for a preliminary injunction to halt implementation of the Trump Administration’s immigration ban. If granted, the injunction would prohibit the Administration from denying immigrant and nonimmigrant visas and suspending entry into the United States to people who are otherwise eligible under federal law.
Two weeks ago, this civil rights coalition filed the first legal challenge to the entirety of the immigration ban with an amended complaint in Gomez v. Trump on behalf of immigrant visa petitioners who would suffer irreparable harm if they are unable to reunited with their families, are stripped of their only opportunity for a diversity visa, or cannot access the workers necessary for economic growth. The presidential proclamation was initially signed on April 22, and on June 22 was expanded in scope and extended through the end of 2020.
The motion for a preliminary injunction includes 27 supporting declarations from individual and organizational plaintiffs, academics and experts on economics and public health, and the Compete America Coalition — including Amazon, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — advocating for immigration policy reform for highly educated foreign-born professionals. Along with the motion for a preliminary injunction, the coalition also filed a motion requesting that the court certify the case as a class action.
This immigration ban is unprecedented in scope and tears apart our functional immigration system which has been in place for decades. The President has indefinitely separated families thrown the business plans of companies into chaos, eliminated visa categories that allow hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals to live and work in the United States, and rejected decades of Congressional judgments on the terms and conditions upon which people may come to this country. If allowed to remain in effect, it will block 525,000 people from entering, and prevent 20,000 American employers from bringing needed workers — including essential workers during COVID-19 — into the United States.
Our coalition hosted a press briefing with plaintiffs on July 16, which you can listen to here. The July 17 complaint is available here. And the motion filed on Friday for a preliminary injunction, including all 27 declarations, is here.
