In an 18-page order, Judge Simon said the potential damage to would-be immigrants and their families justified a nationwide block. “Facing a likely risk of being separated from their family members and a delay in obtaining a visa to which family members would otherwise be entitled is irreparable harm,” he wrote. Seven US citizens and an advocacy organization filed a lawsuit to block the rule, arguing it “rewrites our immigration and healthcare laws by presidential fiat” and could bar hundreds of thousands of prospective immigrants. Prospective immigrants had been scrambling to figure out how to get the necessary coverage, navigating a complex healthcare bureaucracy that has, for the most part, not previously catered to those who are not yet in the country. According to an analysis by Leighton Ku, director of the Centre for Health Policy Research at George Washington University, recent immigrants without insurance accounted for less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of US medical expenditures in 2017.

Source: The Irish Times November 03, 2019 08:05 UTC