OK, the hearing is over on the DV cases. Here's what I can report. 1
The judge spent the first part of the hearing trying to get a handle on just how many diversity visas have been issued since his order on 9/5 when he told the government to issue visas expeditiously first to plaintiffs and then everyone else. 2
He had been operating under the impression that half of the visas have been issued to the plaintiffs based on the way the govt presented the information. @ckuck clarified to the judge that he’s not considering family members so real number is more like 1/4. 3
The govt also says 13,352 diversity visas have been issued out of the 55,000 supposed to be issued by September 30th. That number may go up as interviews happen over the next week. 4
@ckuck and @rafaesq both noted that the numbers the lawyers have don’t jive with the govt numbers and they’re also playing games regarding claims of upcoming interviews. For example, telling people they have an interview the next day in another country. 5
DOS is also putting about 1/2 the cases in administrative processing. They say the issues can be cured, but there are only 8 days left. Govt noted 711 adjustments in the US to show lots of people were getting visas then admitted that only 1 was for a plaintiff. 6
The judge also tried to pin the govt down to forecast how many would get visas by 9/30, but they wouldn’t do so.7
@ckuck noted that only 6 of the 81 Aker families have visas (about 176 people). The govt didn’t even have our plaintiffs on their spreadsheet until last week. @rafaesq noted that only 51 approved out of their 293. 8
The judge is giving until Friday for each side to brief extending the 9/30 deadline. 2 issues -1. Does he have the authority? 2. If so, what’s the right number to reserve. The judge seems to believe that COVID would have meant some of the 55K wouldn’t have been issued. 9
The judge will have a hearing on the issue of reserving visas next Monday at 2 eastern. That’s obviously a critical hearing that could be life-changing for 1000s of people. End of thread. 10
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