U.S. border security took a massive blow in federal court, at the hands of several immigrant advocacy groups. In Dorcas v. USCIS, the US District Court in Rhode Island ruled against USCIS and ordered them to resume giving benefits to immigrants coming from countries included in Trump’s travel ban.
The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of leftist pro-immigrant nonprofits, including the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, Refugee Dream Center, and Service Employees International Union. They challenged four policies linked with Trump’s travel ban: treating nationality from a banned country as a negative discretionary factor, an indefinite pause on green cards and other benefits, a global asylum hold, and a comprehensive re-review policy based on nationality.
These policies were effectively preventing benefits from going to foreign nationals on the travel ban list. They were largely affecting people who had not been granted entry or asylum, and were simply foreigners applying for immigration and benefits.
The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that USCIS must vacate the policies nationwide and declared them unlawful under the Immigration and Nationality Act and Administrative Procedure Act. USCIS, in response, appealed the decision to the Federal First Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Dorcas ruling, if it stands, would be a grave blow to national security and sovereignty. By ending the global asylum hold, the court essentially made America a hostage to anyone in the world who is opportunistic enough to lie about whether they deserve asylum. The ruling overall sets the standard that the U.S. can’t determine who we let into the country based on whether their nation of origin is hostile to the U.S.
Trump’s travel ban was meant to designate certain hostile countries as ineligible for immigration due to their stance against the United States, and the Immigration and Nationality Act does state that the Executive Branch can use nationality as a criterion for immigration on national security grounds. Yet, in Dorcas, the court refused to consider that provision and claimed that placing holds on immigration applications from banned countries is discriminatory.
The Dorcas case is just another attempt by the Left to prop open the doors to our country, and bring in the most hostile foreigners possible. Applying DEI to immigration is perhaps the most crazed and brazen goal of the Left, and this court ruling just brought them closer to it. A country that cannot screen out threats and gives them benefits is not a sovereign nation. Texans for Strong Borders supports USCIS in its struggle to regain control of our broken immigration system.