Attorneys representing thousands of Diversity Visa applicants filed requests in federal courts in San Jose and Washington, D.C., asking judges to hold the Trump administration in civil contempt for allegedly defying orders to restart a stalled green card lottery program. Lawyers leading the challenge said the government has dragged its feet on processing applications ahead of a fast-approaching deadline to handle remaining cases.
Legal Battle Over Diversity Visa Program Deadlines
Legal teams filed the civil contempt motions in two federal courts as a Wednesday deadline approaches to handle thousands of remaining applications. Curtis Morrison, a San Diego County attorney leading the plaintiff team, stated that courts should compel immediate compliance from federal agencies. Morrison’s team filed the request in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The contempt motion asks judges to sanction the administration and extend the end-of-the-month deadline for all named plaintiffs and class-action participants in the case designated as Medani v. Donald J. Trump. A separate case involving distinct applicants placed on hold, Ivanov v. Trump, is proceeding before U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington, D.C. Morrison stated he represents 1,152 families as plaintiffs in the Ivanov matter.
In a court filing submitted on a Monday, Department of Justice attorney Nag Young Chu argued that claims the government moved slowly in response to an August court order do not provide legal grounds for contempt. Chu maintained that a contempt ruling only applies to pressure a party into fulfilling an existing judicial order or to remedy past harm, neither of which applies in Medani v. Trump. The DOJ filing also indicated that the government opposes extending the visa deadline because doing so would violate the law.
The legal dispute follows a late August ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, who ordered the federal government to resume processing and expediting applications for the Diversity Visa program after officials shut it down in December. Jessica Arena, co-counsel for the plaintiffs, pointed out that government figures show a failure to comply with that order. In the Northern California case, Arena noted that of 1,196 named plaintiffs, only 108—roughly 9 percent—had an approved visa nearly four weeks after the August 28 order. Only 273 applicants received a new decision, with 171 refusals and 102 approvals, leaving more than three in four applicants unresolved.
Conversely, the DOJ informed the court that it completed approximately 2,582 interviews and 2,929 visa adjudications between August 29 and September 2. Morrison countered that the term “adjudication” does not indicate whether visas were granted, only that a review occurred.
New State Department Training Requirements and Program Background
Morrison alleged that federal officials introduced new administrative hurdles to delay processing before the deadline. Last week, the government informed the court that the State Department transmitted cables to embassies instructing officials to halt processing until regional posts complete new required training. This training evaluates whether immigrant applicants will depend on government assistance. Morrison asserted that while evaluating an applicant’s self-sufficiency has always been part of standard protocols, requiring all embassies to complete the training before resuming immigrant visa processing effectively stalls the pipeline.
Established during the George H.W. Bush administration, the Diversity Visa program has facilitated the immigration of more than 1.7 million individuals to the United States, according to Arena. Morrison estimated that the program has provided visas to 50,000 applicants currently residing in San Diego, including professionals such as doctors and lawyers. The program receives millions of entries annually and is restricted to issuing 55,000 visas each year to individuals from countries that don’t have large numbers of visa requests, such as India and Mexico.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila scheduled a hearing in San Jose to issue a ruling on the contempt motion. In Washington, Judge Leon directed the government to respond by Tuesday but has not yet set a date for deciding the Ivanov case.
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