D.C. Circuit Court Rules to Revive Almaqrami v. Pompeo

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), along with our partners at the Yemeni American Merchants Association (YAMA), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), welcomes the U.S. Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit’s decision to revive Almaqrami v. Pompeo. On August 13, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the case Almaqrami v. Pompeo is not moot. ADC is co-counsel in this high-profile lawsuit, and a majority of the plaintiffs are from Yemen.

Almaqrami v. Pompeo was filed on behalf of immigrants who had been selected to receive the Diversity Visa Lottery to come to the U.S. but were not granted these visas due to President Trump’s travel ban in 2017. The Diversity Visa Lottery program allows people from countries with low immigration rates to the U.S. to get a visa, which leads to a green card. The U.S. receives 10 to 20 million visa lottery applicants each year. Of those, 50,000 applicants are chosen at random to receive visas. Following the travel ban, immigrants from the banned countries who had already won the U.S. visa lottery were not granted their visas.The D.C. Circuit Court’s ruling offers countless stranded immigrants who have been devastated by Trump’s travel ban a second chance. The D.C. District Court now has a new opportunity to review the case and grant entry to the visa lottery selectees. ADC and our co-counsel will be litigating the merits of this case before the D.C. District Court in the coming months, fighting against Trump’s bigoted and unjust travel ban. ADC hopes that the D.C. District Court will make the right decision moving forward and support the immigrant communities that have been under constant attack by the Trump Administration by allowing them to enter the country.

For press inquiries, please contact media@adc.org

 

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