A group of American citizens and immigrants have sued the administration of US President Donald Trump for repealing a long-standing legal tool that presidents have used to allow people from countries affected by war or political instability to enter and temporarily reside in the US.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, seeks to reactivate those conditional humanitarian programs, which have allowed 875.000 people from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come to the United States, with the sponsorship of legal residents of those countries.
Trump is not only cutting off legal pathways for immigrants who want to come to the US, but he is also implementing campaign promises to deport millions of people he believes are in the country illegally.
Prosecutors who entered the U.S. legally under the old system can stay until their conditional stay expires, but the administration has stopped processing their applications for asylum, visas and other permits that would allow them to stay longer.
These residence permits, since 1952, have been issued by both Republican and Democratic presidents for people who could not use standard immigration procedures due to emergency circumstances or because their home countries do not have diplomatic relations with the US.
Joseph Biden used this mechanism more than any other American president.
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