The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has issued an order and judgment in favor of the Biden Administration’s appeals in the DV2020 and DV2021 lawsuits. This decision overturns previous rulings by Judge Mehta and Judge Chutkan, effectively halting the immigration process for approximately 20,000 Diversity Visa selectees from fiscal years 2020 and 2021.
“Once Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021 ended, the plaintiffs lost their eligibility for diversity visas. The district courts erred in asserting an equitable authority to override these clear statutory deadlines, which foreclose the prospective relief sought in these cases.Accordingly, we reverse the remedial orders challenged by the government, reject the Goh cross-appeal, and remand the cases with instructions to enter judgment for the government,” the court order reads.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs and class members in the impacted lawsuits, including Goodluck, Gomez (which encompasses Mohammed, Fonjong, and Kennedy), Rai, and Goh, have not yet convened to discuss the development or the potential for an appeal to the full circuit court.
Curtis Lee Morrison, who represents several thousand plaintiffs across five of the affected lawsuits, expressed strong disapproval of the administration’s actions. “Our clients, mostly from Africa and the global south, deserve much better than how they have been treated by the Biden Administration,” said Curtis Lee Morrison in a statement.
Morrison further criticized the administration’s decision, “The Biden Administration had an opportunity to use immigration as a diplomatic tool but instead chose to fight Diversity Visa selectees wronged by Trump and extinguish their hope. Now, they are likely celebrating. This is the Biden Administration using immigration policy as a diplomatic weapon against the US. It is bad diplomacy and bad leadership.”
Timeline of Legal Battle:
On August 17, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Gomez v. Biden ordered the State Department to “process DV-2020 applications in random order until all 9,095 diversity visas have been granted.”
On October 13, 2021, the Court ordered the Department to “commence processing the 9,095 DV-2020 visas as soon as feasible and conclude such processing no later than the end of Fiscal Year 2022, or September 30, 2022.”
On April 5, 2022, the court extended the stay until the appeals court announces its decisions.
On September 27, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Rai v. Biden ordered the Department of State to “reserve 966 diversity visa numbers for applicants awaiting adjudication at the twenty-seven embassies and posts previously subject to Proclamations 9984 and 10143 and Defendants’ regional No-Visa Policy.”
The 27 posts identified in the Court’s order were: 1) Amsterdam, 2) Athens, 3) Bern, 4) Bratislava, 5) Brussels, 6) Budapest, 7) Dublin, 8) Frankfurt, 9) Guangzhou, 10) Helsinki, 11) Hong Kong, 12) Johannesburg, 13) Lisbon, 14) Ljubljana, 15) London, 16) Madrid, 17) Naples, 18) Paris, 19) Prague, 20) Reykjavik, 21) Riga, 22) Rio de Janeiro, 23) Stockholm, 24) Tallinn, 25) Vienna, 26) Vilnius, and 27) Warsaw.
On October 20, 2021, the Court ordered the Department to “begin processing and adjudicating the 966 reserved fiscal year 2021 diversity visa applications as soon as reasonably feasible. Defendants shall complete the processing and adjudication of those 966 applications by the end of fiscal year 2022.”
On April 6, 2022, the Court stayed the order until the appeals court announces its decisions.
On September 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the Goodluck v. Biden-related matters ordered the Department of State to “reserve 6,914 diversity visas for adjudication pending final judgment in the Goodluck-related matters.”
On April 18, 2022, the court decided to stay the Goodluck litigation until the appeals court announces its decision.
On September 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Goh v. Biden ordered the Department of State to “make 481 diversity visas available for adjudication” and to “adjudicate those diversity visas by the close of Fiscal Year 2022.”
On April 6, 2022, the court extended the stay until the appeals court announces its decisions.