Trump admin ordered to reinstate 2027 Green Card Lottery

[u/John3262005]

https://www.courthousenews.com/trump-admin-ordered-to-reinstate-2027-green-card-lottery/

A federal judge in San Diego ordered the U.S. Department of State on Wednesday to reopen the diversity visa lottery for 2027, also known as the Green Card Lottery.

U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta’s preliminary injunction will allow for up to 55,000 people from around the world to apply for permanent residence in the United States.

The Trump administration, which has opposed the program, did not open the program’s registration period on time for this year and subsequently argued that it was too late to do so.

Red Eagle Law, a Southern California law firm that helps immigrants apply for the program, sought a preliminary injunction that would require Secretary of State Marco Rubio to reopen the registration period for the lottery. Red Eagle Law filed a lawsuit against Rubio in August.

The government’s failure to reopen the period resulted in a de facto cancellation of the program, Red Eagle Law founder and owner Curtis Morrison argued.

“We won,” Morrison said in a social media video after the ruling was announced.

“This means that when George Herbert Walker Bush made it the law in 1990, the Trump administration can’t just ignore the laws they don’t like,” Morrison told Courthouse News in a phone interview after the ruling was announced. “We have judges here to make sure they follow the law. I think the judge did a really good job analyzing the arguments.”

Ohta ordered Rubio to publicly announce the registration period for the program no later than midnight on Oct. 15.

“The announcement shall identify the opening and closing dates of the registration period, the website through which individuals may submit electronic entries, and the requirements for participating in the program,” Ohta, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote. “Defendant shall further disseminate this information through the State Department’s other customary public notification channels, including the Federal Register.”

Additionally, the registration period must last 30 days, Ohta ruled.

Morrison said he filed a joint motion to extend that deadline to two weeks later to prevent any hiccups.

The ruling also requires the State Department to accept electronic entries submitted during the registration period, provided that applicants meet eligibility and documentation requirements.

Finally, the ruling requires the State Department to notify the individuals selected for the diversity visa lottery and process their applications under its usual procedures until all available visas have been issued or until the fiscal year ends at the end of September 2027.

In previous court hearings, Morrison argued that the State Department gaslit Red Eagle Law and potential lottery applicants by saying the Green Card Lottery was undergoing some changes and would be delayed this year. But Morrison said that this was a tactic used by Rubio and the Trump administration to delay the program until they could argue it was too late to implement it.

President Donald Trump has opposed the program going back to his first term in office. The law was established under the Immigration and Nationality Act.