A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can move forward with a controversial initiative requiring undocumented immigrants to enter their personal details into an online database — and face fines or jail time if they don’t comply.
The policy, first unveiled by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in February, is scheduled to go into effect on Friday.
Under the new rule, undocumented immigrants aged 14 and up — including minors — must provide details such as fingerprints and residential addresses. As reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, noncompliance could result in penalties of up to $5,000 and a prison sentence of up to six months.
Several advocacy groups that serve immigrant populations, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA), United Farmworkers of America, Make the Road New York, and CASA, filed a lawsuit last month seeking to stop the policy from being implemented.
“Plaintiffs have not shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits,” DC US District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ruled Thursday. “They have failed to demonstrate that they have standing to bring this suit.”
Judge McFadden, who was appointed by President Trump, dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims of harm as hypothetical and argued that the organizations had failed to present evidence that any individual had suffered the kind of injury recognized by the courts under Article III.
In his ruling, McFadden cited the long history of federal laws mandating non-citizen registration, beginning with the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The current iteration of that obligation is derived from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
The directive to launch this registry was included in President Trump’s “Day One” executive order, titled Protecting the American People Against Invasion, which instructed the Department of Homeland Security to enforce the requirements of section 262 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and to prioritize penalties for noncompliance.
“Most aliens in the United States have already registered, as required by law,” according to USCIS. “However, a significant number of aliens present in the United States have had no direct way in which to register and meet their obligation under INA [section] 262.”
“In order that unregistered aliens may comply with their duty under INA [section] 262, USCIS is establishing a new form and process by which they may register. No alien will have an excuse for failure to comply with this law.”
The groups challenging the rule contended that it would ultimately serve as a mechanism for mass removals of undocumented immigrants and insisted that such a sweeping change should go through a full public comment period before being finalized.
{Matzav.com}