Thread by @KarenTumlin

I am literally over the moon🌛 to be reading the court order in our Gomez case. After litigation against the Trump and Biden administrations, we finally have a court order requiring the government to issue 9,095 diversity visas that had been held aside for about a year. /1

These are individuals who applied for and won the diversity lottery back in fiscal year 2020…. In other words, they have been waiting about 2 years for this day. Let’s do a rewind to remember how we got here. /2

In June 2020, President Trump signed a sweeping immigration ban blocking most legal immigration to the U.S. This stopped the processing of diversity visas. Every year 55,000 individuals “win” the diversity visa lottery & a chance to come to the U.S. on a green card. /3

The program was designed to increase diversity in our immigration system & it has. In recent years over 40% of the diversity visas have gone to African countries. Our class members are from all over the 🌎globe, including Afghanistan where we've heard urgent requests for help. /4

One of the requirements of the diversity visa program is that visas have to be handed out before the end of the fiscal year—Sept. 30. Due to the Trump Ban, a month before the deadline in 2020 there were 40,000 unused diversity visas. /5

We had sued on the ban with our partners at @AILANational @ThinkLawLab @Mayer_Brown. Earlier in the case we were able to get the court to set aside 9,095 visas before the dreaded deadline. /6

Now, you would have thought that would have resulted in those visas being handed out. You may have even thought that the Biden administration would stop fighting against it in court. But that didn’t happen. We had to keep fighting to get these visas finally released. /7

That is the sweet news of the order tonight. The court required the visas to be released “in a random order” and that the parties will discuss how quickly that can be done. We want it as fast as possible. And we have to give the court an update on that no later than Aug. 25. /end