Immigration Ban Settlement Lets Barred Travelers Reapply for Entry

A new settlement over the Trump administration’s first immigration ban will provide barred travelers with notice of their right to reapply for entry into the U.S.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed this immigration ban class action lawsuit promptly after the ban was announced in January.

Plaintiffs Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, both Iraqi nationals, say they were barred from entering the U.S. when they arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York hours after the ban went into effect.

U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly quickly blocked enforcement of the immigration ban by issuing a nationwide injunction on Jan. 28. The Trump administration has since come back with revised versions of the ban, versions that are themselves subject to further dispute.

Under terms of this immigration ban class action settlement, the Trump administration will send email notification to travelers barred under the first ban, advising them of their right to reapply for entry into the U.S. without prejudice as to their previous denial of entry.

Travelers will be offered contact information for providers of free legal services who can help travelers with the application process. Processing of these applications will be overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice for the next three months. The notices will be written in English with translations in Arabic and Farsi.

This immigration ban class action lawsuit is one of several filed almost immediately after the immigration ban was issued via executive order on Jan. 27.

The ban imposed a 90-day ban on entry into the U.S. for nationals from six predominantly Muslim countries – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – even if the travelers held valid visas. It also mandated a 120-day moratorium on the refugee resettlement program.

Documents released to the plaintiffs through a Freedom of Information Act request show that around 140 travelers were excluded from entry from the date of the ban through February. Attorneys for Darweesh and Alshawi say the actual number of excluded persons could be much higher.

Both plaintiffs say they held valid visas when they flew into JFK on Jan. 27. Darweesh had recently been granted a Special Immigrant Visa based on his 10 years of U.S. work as an interpreter, contractor and engineer. Alshawi had been granted a Follow to Join visa so that he could join his wife and son living in Houston as lawful permanent residents.

The two plaintiffs say they were detained immediately upon arrival in New York and were not allowed to seek legal advice.

The Trump administration rescinded and replaced the immigration ban in March. But the second version was also quickly blocked by federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily reinstated part of the immigration ban, pending further litigation over the requirement that persons from the six countries affected by the ban have a close family relationship with someone in the U.S. in order to gain entry.

The plaintiffs are represented by Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, Karen C. Tumlin of the National Immigration Law Center and Muneer Ahmad and Michael J. Wishnie of Yale Law School, among others.

The President Trump Executive Order Immigration Ban Class Action Lawsuit is Darweesh, et al. v. Trump, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-00480, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.