Judge Extends Block On Trump’s Uninsured Immigrant Policy

A federal judge in Oregon has extended his 28-day block on a Trump administration policy that requires applicants for immigration visas to prove that they have health insurance before they will be allowed legally into the United States.

On Oct. 4, 2019, President Trump issued a Proclamation titled, “Presidential Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Will Financially Burden the United States Healthcare System.”

The federal judge’s opinion notes that the question before the court is whether Congress or the President is responsible for deciding this policy.

The class action lawsuit was filed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association and other organizations on Oct. 30, 2019.

On Nov. 2, 2019, the judge entered a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), which meant that the defendants could not take any action to enforce or implement the Proclamation through Nov. 30, 2019.

Judge Michael Simon has now ruled that the President’s Proclamation which requires legal immigrants to prove that they have health insurance before they will be allowed to enter the United States is not consistent with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (INA). Thus, the court has preliminarily enjoined the enforcement of the Proclamation.

The judge opined that the Proclamation does not assist the approach of the INA in controlling admissibility, but would amend or replace the INA in a way to which Congress has refused previously.

“The Proclamation, therefore, is unlikely to make any meaningful difference to address the problem and its implementation will not result in a reduction to the problem that would then, in turn, result in the restriction no longer being necessary,” the judge’s opinion states.

The President’s Proclamation states that allowing qualified legal immigrants into the United States who do not have health insurance would “saddle” the nation’s healthcare system and that the American taxpayer would have to pay more for health insurance.

“The Proclamation seeks to unilaterally rewrite this country’s immigration laws, imposing a new ground of inadmissibility that Congress has expressly rejected, and creating requirements that will be extremely difficult, or impossible, for most otherwise qualified immigrant visa applicants to satisfy,” the plaintiffs claim in their class action lawsuit.

The class action lawsuit states that even though the Proclamation shows a number of health insurance options that would be available to those who want to immigrate into the United States, those options are few and far between and not practical to those trying to enter the country.

Further, the class action claims that the Proclamation will create another class of immigrants who are otherwise qualified to enter the United States, who will be barred from entry based solely on this new health insurance requirement.

“The Proclamation and its implementation undermine not only Congress’s intent, as expressed through the ACA, to provide a certain minimum level of coverage to all legal immigrants and citizens in the United States, but also the Proclamation’s own stated goal of addressing the burdens of uncompensated care provided to uninsured individuals,” the class action lawsuit claims.

Do you agree with the President’s Proclamation on immigration? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Stephen Manning and Nadia Dahab of Innovation Law Lab, Karen C. Tumlin and Esther H. Sung of the Justice Action Center, Jesse Bless of AILA and Scott D. Stein and Naomi Igra of Sidley Austin LLP.

The Immigration Health Insurance Policy Class Action Lawsuit is John Doe v. Donald Trump, Case No. 3:19-cv-1743, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

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