Media Mention

Ilya Somin: Federal Court Rules Against Trump’s Work Visa Ban

October 4, 2020

Note: this piece was originally published in Reason, and was written by Checks & Balances member Ilya Somin. 

In an important decision issued last week, US District Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California (a Republican George W. Bush appointee) ruled that President Trump’s recent proclamation suspending nearly all entry of foreign workers on employment visas is illegal. The case was brought by a coalition of employer groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and others. I wrote about the issues at stake here:

Section 212(f) [of the Immigration and Nationality Act], codified as 8 USC Section 1182(f)… gives the president the power to bar entry into the US by any foreign national whom he deems to “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” In Trump v. Hawaii, Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion interpreted this as giving the president the power to exclude almost any alien he wants, so long as he makes a finding that the person’s presence is “detrimental to the interests” of the US. Under Roberts’ logic, the president need not prove that supposed threat to US “interests” is real, and there is no limitation on what qualifies as a relevant “interest….”

Continue reading at Reason.