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Tens of thousands of immigrants who won a lottery for visas into the country say coronavirus travel bans have kept them out of the U.S. and now their documentation is set to expire.
At issue are 55,000 visa lottery winners who were given green cards for fiscal year 2020. Many of the visa holders are from countries that were slapped with a travel ban by the former president in April and June of last year. They say that their visas are set to expire and have since lodged a class action lawsuit against the government.
The travel bans were issued over concerns about a coronavirus-incited recession. President Joe Biden rescinded many of the other travel bans issued by the former president, but the ban on certain visa lottery winners remains in place, as does the threat of those visas expiring.
Attorneys representing the new administration as well as visa holders took part in a virtual hearing yesterday. Lawyers representing the visa holders told U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta that the administration’s inaction made the situation dire.
“There’s probably 300 or 400 people who will lose their visas within the next week,” a lawyer representing the visa holders said at the court hearing, according to Law360.
Attorneys representing the Biden administration told Judge Mehta that they did not have enough time to respond to the motion for an injunction stopping the expiration of visas. Lawyers representing the visa holders shot back, arguing that the administration has sufficient time to consider rescinding the travel ban, but has failed to take any action.
“[T]his is not something the government was just presented with,” stated one of the attorneys during the hearing. “That is not accurate. We actually had this conversation two weeks ago … when the administration publicly said it’s considering whether to lift the bans.”
“The reality is it’s now on the court to make this happen,” he continued. “Everybody is going to lose their visas while they consider this.”
Ultimately, the government was given until Feb. 17 to file a reply and a hearing was scheduled for the next day.
Are you or a loved one a lottery winner facing visa expiration due to COVID-19 travel bans? We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.
The lead plaintiffs and proposed Class Members are represented by Philip Duclos, Curtis Lee Morrison, Rafael Ureña, Kristina Ghazaryan and Abadir Barre of the Law Office of Rafael Ureña; Charles H. Kuck of Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC; and Jesse Bless of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The Visa Expiration Class Action Lawsuit is Gomez et al. v. Trump et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-01419, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
One thought on U.S. Visa Lottery Winners Fight Expiration Over COVID-19 Travel Bans
My nephew won a green card through the lottery. He lives in Bulgaria. He submitted the initial set of documents and was waiting to soon receive a date for interview in The US Embassy in Sofia when Covid 19 hit. The Embassy was closed and stopped processing any documents. The date passed by when he should have entered the United States may he has completed the whole process. His case number now shows as invalid number in the system. His immigration was never completed not in any sense by his fault. He lost his right to obtain his Green card due to the Immigration offices being closed and processing of documents put on hold