A group of American citizens and immigrants has sued the U.S. government under President Donald Trump for ending a longstanding legal provision that allowed people from war-torn or politically unstable countries to enter and temporarily stay in the U.S.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, demands the reinstatement of conditional humanitarian programs that enabled 875,000 people from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to come to the U.S. under sponsorship from legal U.S. residents.
Trump is not only ending legal immigration pathways but also fulfilling his campaign promises to deport millions of people he considers to be in the country illegally.
The plaintiffs, who legally entered the U.S. under the old system, are allowed to stay until their conditional stay expires. However, the administration stopped processing their asylum applications, visa requests, and other permits that would allow them to stay longer.
Since 1952, both Republican and Democratic presidents have used this mechanism to offer relief to individuals who couldn’t use standard immigration procedures due to urgent circumstances or because their home countries had no diplomatic relations with the U.S.
President Joe Biden utilized this system more than any other U.S. president.
