Trump administration faces another temporary setback in immigration crackdown attempt

(Image credit: Steven Ryan/Getty Images)

last updated 3 November 2019

The courts continue to be a thorn in the side of the White House as the Trump administration seeks to curb immigration into the United States.

A federal judge granted a 28-day temporary restraining order Saturday preventing the Trump administration from implementing a policy that would require immigrants to prove they would either have U.S. health insurance within 30 days or the ability to pay for medical costs upon entry into the country.

The policy was set to go into effect Sunday, but Judge Michael Simon of the Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon, issued the ruling, which he justified by stating it would be too damaging to immigrants and their families. "Facing a likely risk of being separated from their family members and a delay in obtaining a visa to which family members would otherwise be entitled is irreparable harm," he wrote.

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Seven U.S. citizens and an advocacy organization filed the lawsuit, noting that the policy "rewrites our immigration and health-care laws by presidential fiat" and could potentially keep hundreds of thousands of immigrants from entering the U.S. The Trump administration has defended the policy by arguing insuring immigrants was too much of a financial burden on Americans. Read more at The New York Times and Reuters.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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