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Recently, the State Department announced a change to the Diversity Visa (DV) online application that would require applicants to provide their current passport information.  In the past, someone who wanted to register for DV didn't need a passport until he/she was selected to actually apply for the visa (only 100,000 out of the roughly 14 million applicants are selected to apply for a diversity visa.) This allowed applicants to avoid the expense and log

March 28th, 2019

For Immediate Release

Contact: assefash@africans.us, nekessa@undocublack.org

Joint Statement on the Liberian DED lawsuit, African Communities Together v. Trump:

Hearing on preliminary injunction and other updates

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Lawyers for Civil Rights jointly filed a lawsuit today challenging President Donald Trump’s termination of humanitarian protection and relief for immigrants from Liberia. The lawsuit, the first of its kind in the country, was filed on behalf of African Communities Together (ACT), the UndocuBlack Network, and fifteen affected individuals, including Liberians raising U.S. citizen children. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The lawsuit challenges President Trump’s March 27, 2018 decision to terminate Deferred Enforcement Departure (DED), a life-saving immigration program, marshalling evidence of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and/or national origin in violation of the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.