Federal judge allows Trump to proceed with immigrant registry rule

By Andrew Kreighbaum

 

A federal judge rejected a request by immigration advocacy organizations to block a Trump administration rule requiring millions of immigrants to register with the federal government.

 

Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the US District Court for the District of Columbia found plaintiffs had failed to establish likelihood of standing to challenge the registry rule. The registry requirement, which goes into effect Friday, gives the Trump administration another tool to enact its mass deportation agenda.

 

In a lawsuit filed last month, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the United Farm Workers argued the Department of Homeland Security regulation violated notice-and-comment requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act.

 

DHS issued the registry mandate as an interim final rule March 12, citing a World War II-era statute requiring certain immigrants to register or risk prosecution.

 

McFadden, a Trump appointee, found that harms cited by plaintiffs were speculative. They “have failed to show that the mere requirement to abide by the law—even if true that the accompanying regulation flouted procedural requirements when enacted— constitutes a concrete injury for standing purposes,” he wrote in a memorandum order.

 

In a speech at a border security conference Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Trump administration would use any and all available laws to help officials carry out the president’s promised mass deportation plan, including the World War II-era Alien Registration Act. That law says immigrants in the country for more than 30 days without authorization must register with the federal government or be criminally charged, she said.

 

“We can go in and take you out of your home and deport you out of this country,” Noem said.

 

Anyone who fails to register will also face daily fines of up to $1,000, she added.

 

Nicholas Espíritu, deputy legal director at the National Immigration Law Center, said in a statement that immigrants affected by the rule should consult an attorney about the consequences of registering or not.

 

“This disappointing ruling unfortunately means that Trump’s scheme to force people into an impossible choice between registering and risking immediate deportation, or refusing and facing penalties, moves forward for now,” Espíritu said.

 

The plaintiffs, who also included Make the Road New York and CASA Inc., are represented by the National Immigration Law Center, American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Immigrants’ Rights Project, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. The Justice Department represents DHS.