Source: Politics
A federal judge said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s policy facilitating visas for participants in the ongoing World Cup soccer tournament undercuts the administration’s claims that other immigration benefits — for nationals from some of those same countries — need to be halted for national security reasons.
Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a ruling last month lifting a hold the administration put on immigration processing for citizens of 39 countries.
During a hearing Wednesday on the Justice Department’s request to pause McConnell’s ruling, the judge said the effort to expedite visas for World Cup players and others connected to the tournament backed his view that there was no genuine national security motivation behind the moratorium, imposed last year after an Afghan immigrant allegedly shot two National Guard members near the White House.
“We let players and coaches from some of those 39 countries in, and their family members — disregarded the ban. We’ve let doctors in,” said McConnell. “If the categorical ban on those countries was needed because of the finding of the requirement for vetting wasn’t being properly done, why did we let the soccer players in? Why did we let their family members? Why did we let their coaches? Why did we let their doctors?”
Justice Department attorney Tyler Becker acknowledged that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has ignored the 39-country halt “in a few contexts.” The visa decisions impacting the World Cup are made by another government agency, the State Department. It, too, enforces special limits on visas for citizens of the same 39 countries, but that policy contains an exception for “participants in certain major sporting events.”
McConnell rejected the notion that his order would have prevented the federal government from pausing Saudi applications after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That decision, he said, was clearly rooted in rational security needs as opposed to the Trump administration’s more sweeping suspension of immigration processing.
Earlier in the hourlong hearing, McConnell joked that an attorney for those challenging the halt might want to speed his argument — because the Argentina-England World Cup semifinal was just minutes away and some fans in the courtroom were eager to see it. But the Obama-appointed judge quickly emphasized he was kidding.
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