Travel banImmigrant rights groups file class action suit challenging travel ban

Yesterday, the American Immigration Council, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild filed a nationwide, class action lawsuit in the District Court for the Western District of Washington challenging the Trump administration’s executive order, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” on grounds that it violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law and a statutory prohibition against discrimination. At issue in this suit is Section 3 of the executive order, through which President Donald Trump abruptly suspended immigrant visa processing for nationals of seven predominantly Muslim countries, and prohibited their entry into the United States.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who have filed visa petitions for their immediate family members who are nationals of the seven countries. The American Immigration Council says that the applicants have all gone through a lengthy and rigorous application and screening process, seeking to be reunited with their families in the United States. Since issuance of the executive order, immigrants have been unjustly blocked from entering the United States at airports all across the country. Now, federal government officials are blocking more family members before they even board their planes, and suspending or revoking all other visa  applications.  

Plaintiffs include Reema Dahman, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, who had filed a petition to bring her 16-year-old son, stranded in war-torn Syria, to the United States. The two have not seen each other since 2012. They are now at the last stage of processing, waiting only for an immigrant visa interview to be scheduled. But the President’s executive order has suspended immigrant visa interviews, putting safety and security further out of the boy’s reach and further delaying the boy’s reunification with his mother.

Dahman described the moment she realized her separation from her son would continue by saying, “I’m heartbroken. Every day I am filled with anguish at what might become of my son, and this order just crushed my hopes that I could get him out of harm’s way anytime soon.”