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SAN DIEGO – President Donald Trump on Thursday extended pandemic-related bans on green cards and work visas to large groups of applicants until March 31, as a federal appeals court rallied to him on a rule requiring new immigrants to have their own health insurance.
The twofold development on the last day of 2020 summarized how Trump made U.S. immigration policy more restrictive without congressional support. President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to reverse many of Trump’s actions, but it’s unclear how quickly and even to what extent.
Federal judges have limited the impact of the pandemic-related visa bans, which were due to expire on Thursday. Biden, who is now forced to decide when and whether to lift them after taking office on January 20, does not specifically address the issue in his immigration platform.
Biden also doesn’t directly address the health insurance requirement in his platform, and an attorney who sued police on Thursday urged him to cancel it immediately.
In April, Trump imposed a ban on foreign-issued green cards that largely targets family members of people already in the United States. After a surprisingly cold reception from the immigration hawks, the administration went much further in June by adding H-1B visas, which are widely used by workers at US and Indian tech companies and their families; H-2B visas for seasonal non-agricultural workers; J-1 visas for cultural exchanges; and L-1 visas for executives and other key employees of multinational companies.
Trump has said the measures will protect American jobs in an economy plagued by a pandemic, while business groups have said they will hamper the recovery.
“The effects of COVID-19 on the United States labor market and on the health of American communities are a matter of continuing national concern,” reads Trump’s proclamation, highlighting the growing number of cases and the restrictions states on companies.
In contrast, the administration’s decree to immediately deport asylum seekers and others illegally crossing the border into Mexico was justified on the grounds that it contained the coronavirus, although reports from the Associated Press and others revealed that government scientists saw no evidence for it. A temporary ban on non-essential travel across the Mexican and Canadian borders has also been imposed for public health reasons.
In October, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the work visa ban could not be enforced against the prosecuting groups and their members, who represent a large part of the American economy: the American Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Retail Federation, TechNet technology industry group, and Intrax Inc., which operates cultural exchange programs.
In December, a federal judge in Oakland, Calif., Ruled out the green card ban from going into effect against the families of 181 U.S. citizens and legal residents who had filed a lawsuit.
In its ruling on Thursday, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel voted 2-1 to pave the way for Trump’s requirement that immigrants have health insurance. New immigrants must demonstrate that they can get coverage within 30 days and pay their medical bills. A federal judge prevented the rule from coming into effect almost immediately after it was announced in October 2019.
Trump-appointed Judge Daniel P. Collins wrote that the president acted within his authority, relying heavily on the Supreme Court ruling upholding Trump’s travel ban in several majority countries muslim. He was joined by Judge Jay Bybee, who was appointed by President George W. Bush.
Judge A. Wallace Tashima, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, dissented, calling the policy “a major overhaul of this nation’s immigration laws without congressional input – a radical and unprecedented exercise. of unilateral executive power ”.
Esther Sung, a lawyer with the Justice Action Center, an advocacy group that has taken legal action to block the rule, said she was disappointed.
The decision “makes it clear that the Biden administration must act quickly to quash all of President Trump’s xenophobic presidential proclamations, including this ban on health care,” she said.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
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