Injunction Issued Restraining DHS

On October 11, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a national injunction, which restrained DHS and USCIS from implementing the DHS Public Charge Final Rule. The Court also prevented the government from implementing any of the new or updated forms that the Final Rule required. These forms included the Form I-129, Form I-485, Form I-539, Form I-864, Form I-864 EZ, Form I-944 and Form I-945.

What was the Public Charge Final Rule?

The Public Charge Final Rule, if it had been implemented, would expand the government's ability to deny permanent status to immigrants who have relied on public benefits. Questions regarding the use of public benefits were on the aforementioned updated forms. Because of the discriminatory nature of these questions, Make the Road New York, African Services Committee, Asian American Federation, Catholic Charities Community Services, and Catholic Legal Immigration Network filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 27, 2019. These organizations were represented by the Legal Aid Society, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in the case. The case is called Make the Road New York, et al. v. Cucinelli, et al.

The rule was supposed to go into effect on October 15, 2019. The new forms were available on the USCIS website for a brief period before they were taken down.

For More Information:

Download or view the complaint from the Catholic Legal Immigration Network here.

This blog post does not serve as legal advice and does not establish any client-attorney privilege. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our legal team directly.

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This information comes from a news release from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA Doc. No. 19101103).