Gomez v. Trump


UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA _________________________________________ ) DOMINGO ARREGUIN GOMEZ, et al., ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) Case No. 20-cv-01419 (APM) ) DONALD J. TRUMP, in his official capacity as ) President of the United States of America, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) _________________________________________ ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiffs in this action are United States citizens and lawful permanent residents whose children and grandchildren (“beneficiaries”) were, at the time this litigation commenced, all “minors”—meaning unmarried children under the age of 21—seeking immigrant visas to enter this country. Each beneficiary has since turned or will turn 21 years old this month. Two have received their visas since Plaintiffs filed this action, and Plaintiffs concede that their individual claims relating to those beneficiaries’ applications are now moot. As for the third beneficiary, W.Z.A., Plaintiffs fear that if he does not receive his visa and enter the country before his birthday on June 30, he will “age out” of his minor visa preference category. What prompted Plaintiffs’ filing of this suit is Presidential Proclamation 10014, Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak, 85 Fed. Reg. 23,441 (Apr. 22, 2020) (“Proclamation” or “Proclamation 10014”). Presidential Proclamation 10014 halts processing of certain categories of immigrant visas, including the beneficiary-based visas at issue in this case. Plaintiffs seek a temporary restraining order preventing Defendants from enforcing Proclamation 10014 against minor visa applicants who will turn 21 years old during the Proclamation’s effective period. The minor visa applicants are sponsored by Plaintiffs and other similarly situated United States citizen and lawful permanent resident parents. Plaintiffs also request that this court certify a class of visa sponsors whose beneficiaries or derivative beneficiaries are subject to the Proclamation and will also age out while the Proclamation remains in effect. Because Plaintiffs have not shown that this action presents a justiciable case or controversy, the court denies Plaintiffs’ motions. I. Background A. Proclamation 10014 On April 22, 2020, President Trump signed Presidential Proclamation 10014, which temporarily suspends the “entry into the United States” of certain classes of immigrants who did not already have a valid immigrant visa or travel document as of April 23, 2020, the effective date of the Proclamation. 85 Fed. Reg. at 23,442–43 §§ 1, 2(a), 5. The Proclamation cites various justifications, rooted in economic harms caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, to justify temporarily suspending entry of new permanent residents. First among those reasons is protecting unemployed American workers against competition in the labor market from new permanent residents. See 85 Fed. Reg. at 23,441–42. The Proclamation states that “we must be mindful of the impact of foreign workers on the United States labor market, particularly in an environment of high domestic unemployment and depressed demand for labor,” and highlights the need to protect in particular “workers at the margin between employment and unemployment, who are typically ‘last in’ during an ...

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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals