By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to go ahead with a plan to make immigrants illegally living in or entering the United States register with the federal government or face fines or imprisonment.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in Washington, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term in office, found that groups challenging the Department of Homeland Security rule implementing the policy – including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and United Farm Workers of America – had not shown they had standing to bring the lawsuit.
“As organizations, many of their harms are too speculative, and they have failed to show that the Rule will erode their core missions,” he wrote.
Nicholas Espiritu, deputy legal director at the National Immigration Law Center, which represents the plaintiffs, called the ruling “disappointing,” and said it would “force people into an impossible choice between registering and risking immediate deportation, or refusing and facing penalties.”
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Federal law has long required immigrants in the United States, including those in the country illegally, to register, but the requirement has not been consistently enforced.
The DHS rule, set to take effect on Friday, requires those not already registered to do so via a new government website and to carry registration documents or face criminal penalties.
Trump, a Republican, has said that stopping illegal immigration and deporting immigrants who are in the United States illegally are top priorities for his administration.
His policies have already drawn numerous legal challenges. Some have resulted in court rulings against the administration, including one from the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday requiring the government to facilitate the return of a man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.
(This story has been refiled to correct the day of the week to Thursday, not Friday, in paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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