Immigration Law

Federal appeals court refuses to immediately reinstate Trump’s immigrant travel ban

A federal appeals court on Sunday refused to immediately reinstate President Trump’s executive order temporarily banning refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acted (PDF) after U.S. District Judge James Robart issued a nationwide temporary restraining…

Feb 6, 2017 8:31 AM CST

DOJ lawyer says more than 100,000 visas have been revoked; State Department says number is 60,000

Updated: A Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge in Virginia on Friday that more than 100,000 visas have been revoked as a result of President Donald Trump’s order temporarily banning immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. Lawyer Erez Reuveni of the department’s Office of Immigration…

Feb 3, 2017 12:25 PM CST

More than 40 suits challenge immigration order and airport detentions; standing is an issue

More than 40 lawsuits have been filed to aid people whose entry into the United States was blocked because of President Donald Trump’s immigration order last Friday. The cases are testing legal theories and seeking to overcome two potential hurdles, Law.com reports. One hurdle is standing and the other is…

Feb 3, 2017 9:22 AM CST

Revoked visas make travel to US impossible for people from banned countries, despite judges’ orders

Lawyers in Boston who are challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration have new information explaining why citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries have not been able to board planes to the United States, despite court orders allowing them entry. A State Department memo issued the same day as Trump’s…

Feb 1, 2017 1:08 PM CST

San Francisco sues to block Trump order denying funds to sanctuary cities

The city of San Francisco on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block President Trump’s executive order that withholds federal grant money to sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. San Francisco’s city attorney, Dennis Herrera, said at a news conference that the executive order was unconstitutional…

Feb 1, 2017 7:00 AM CST

Court to decide whether Constitution grants protections to Mexican boy killed by US border guard

The case of Hernandez v. Mesa comes amid the wider debate about illegal immigration and the call to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico border, and against a background of a troubling number of cross-border shootings by U.S. agents. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for today.

Feb 1, 2017 2:30 AM CST

Getting Ready: The ABA takes a close look at Trump administration positions

The ABA Governmental Affairs Office has been closely monitoring positions taken by President Donald J. Trump to determine their impact on issues of concern to the association.

Feb 1, 2017 12:40 AM CST

ABA questions immigration orders, praises lawyers who swarmed airports to help

ABA President Linda Klein said in a statement Tuesday that the ABA is concerned the immigration-related orders issued Jan. 25 and Jan. 27 “make significant changes to our nation’s immigration policies and jeopardize fundamental principles of justice, due process and the rule of law.” The ABA applauded the efforts of…

Jan 31, 2017 12:23 PM CST

Trump fires acting attorney general who won’t defend immigration order; states file litigation

Updated: President Donald Trump on Monday evening fired acting attorney general Sally Yates after she refused to defend his executive order temporarily banning refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries from entering the United States. A White House statement said Yates “has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing…

Jan 31, 2017 8:49 AM CST

How much advance legal review did immigration order get? Sources say agencies cut out

Updated: Career officials at the Homeland Security Department, the State Department and other agencies didn’t get much information about President Donald Trump’s executive order banning some immigrants. James Jay Carafano, a vice president of the conservative Heritage Foundation who is a member of Trump’s transition team, said the firewall was…

Jan 30, 2017 1:30 PM CST

Federal law gives Trump broad immigration authority, but critics see these legal impediments

President Donald Trump cited a federal law giving him broad immigration authority when he issued his executive order on Friday that temporarily blocks refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Temple University law professor Peter Spiro tells the New York Times that the law…

Jan 30, 2017 10:40 AM CST

At least five judges block Trump’s immigration order; more than 4,000 lawyers volunteer

At least five judges over the weekend partially blocked President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration restrictions, as more than 4,000 lawyers volunteered to oppose the president’s executive order. Federal judges in Brooklyn, Boston, Alexandria, Los Angeles and Seattle issued injunctions, although the orders in California and Washington applied only to individual…

Jan 30, 2017 9:05 AM CST

ABA urges Supreme Court to hear case about due process in ‘expedited’ deportation

The American Bar Association is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the government’s right to remove immigrants from the United States without a hearing. Castro v. Department of Homeland Security pits 28 Central American mothers and their 33 children against the federal government’s “expedited removal” process,…

Jan 27, 2017 8:00 AM CST

Scalia opinion on EPA regulations could block Trump’s wall

Updated: President Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Mexican border could hit an obstacle if he relies on a 2006 law for funding authority. The obstacle is a June 2015 majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia that said the Environmental Protection Agency did not properly consider the costs…

Jan 26, 2017 12:09 PM CST

Trump signs order banning federal grants to ‘sanctuary cities’; are there legal obstacles?

The pushback began immediately after President Donald Trump began carrying out his campaign pledge to clamp down on illegal immigration by signing two executive orders on Wednesday. One order called for immediate construction of a wall along the Mexican border, and the other would examine ways to withhold federal grant…

Jan 26, 2017 8:00 AM CST