Trump administration suffers double legal setback over immigration rules

Courts and Democratic-led states equine ineligible challenges against Trump medication visa and greenish paper limits.

US President Donald Trump’s medication has suffered 2 setbacks to its migration agenda arsenic a national justice halted projected visa caps and dozens of Democratic-led states launched ineligible challenges against broader residency restrictions.

A US national justice connected Monday blocked the medication from imposing fixed clip limits connected however agelong overseas students and journalists tin stay successful the state without applying for extensions. At the aforesaid time, a wide conjugation of states filed suit to halt a abstracted national regularisation that would let migration authorities to contradict greenish cards to immigrants who marque lawful usage of nationalist benefits.

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Court halts visa caps

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regularisation was scheduled to instrumentality effect connected Tuesday earlier US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV successful Boston granted an injunction requested by a conjugation of commercialized unions and higher acquisition advocacy groups.

Under Trump’s proposed limitation, F visas for planetary students and J visas that let taste speech programmes successful the US would beryllium capped astatine 4 years. I visas for journalists, which presently tin past for years, would beryllium constricted to 240 days.

Saylor, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, called the DHS’s rationale citing nationalist information and the request to forestall fraud successful the visa programme “exceptionally weak”.

He noted that the existing strategy has allowed tens of millions of scholars to lend to groundbreaking probe and important economical expansion, informing that the harm to higher acquisition and the wider US system would beryllium “catastrophic”.

The measures would impact astir 1.6 cardinal planetary students holding F visas and astir 500,000 speech visitors connected J visas.

US District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV attends the investiture ceremonial for US District Judge Brian Murphy astatine the national courthouse successful Boston, Massachusetts, US, connected September 17, 2025 [File: Brian Snyder/Reuters]

States situation nationalist complaint rule

Two lawsuits were filed successful a Manhattan national tribunal connected Monday to derail a DHS regularisation scheduled to instrumentality effect connected Friday. The measurement seeks to broaden the criteria by which migration officers tin deem applicants inadmissible arsenic a “public charge”, a ineligible modular historically applied to individuals apt to go chiefly babelike connected the authorities for subsistence.

New York, California and Illinois are starring a conjugation of 22 states and the District of Columbia seeking to artifact the policy, joined by a parallel suit from six cities and counties.

Under the Biden administration, migration officers could see currency assistance erstwhile evaluating greenish paper applicants, but were barred from penalising the usage of non-cash enactment specified arsenic nutrient assistance and Medicaid. The Trump medication is present seeking to revive first-term policies that dainty non-cash assistance arsenic a disqualifying factor, portion besides extending scrutiny to benefits received by an applicant’s household members.

A DHS spokesperson defended the regulation, describing the plaintiffs arsenic “left-wing leaders” who were “terrified they volition suffer national funds due to the fact that hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens mightiness region themselves from American payment programs”.

In a statement, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the regularisation “seeks to propulsion migrant families distant from the programs that person kept radical fed and steadfast for decades”.

The lawsuits reason that the medication overstepped its ineligible authorization by bypassing Congress, which holds the sole powerfulness to acceptable the criteria for imperishable residency.

By penalising applicants who lawfully usage non-cash assistance similar nutrient stamps and Medicaid, the plaintiffs contend the medication established an unlawful regularisation that contradicts national statutes.