This archive report was first published on 3 November 2019.
On November 2, 2019, a federal judge issued a nationwide temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration's plan to require immigrants to prove they have health insurance or financial resources to obtain a visa.
The ruling, issued by Judge Michael Simon of the Federal District Court in Portland, Ore., came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Justice Action Center, Innovation Law Lab, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The Trump administration had issued a proclamation on October 4, 2019, ordering consular officers to bar immigrants who could not prove they had health insurance or the ability to pay for medical costs once they become permanent residents of the United States.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, legal immigrants are three times as likely as American citizens to be uninsured.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the policy was 'plainly illegal' and would cause immediate and irreparable harm, potentially affecting up to 375,000 'otherwise qualified immigrants each year.'
Esther Sung, a senior litigator at the Justice Action Center, stated, 'The impact of this ban is just huge. Hundreds of thousands of people would be affected. Two out of three intending immigrants every year might not be able to join their families. It's outrageous that the Trump administration is trying to slip this by people without them noticing.'
