Obama-Appointed Judge Blocks Trump’s Plan To Deny Visas For Immigrants Who Can’t Pay For Healthcare

Here's more from The Hill:

A federal judge in Oregon blocked the Trump administration on Saturday afternoon from enacting a policy that would require new immigrants to demonstrate they have health care or are able to afford it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the order, handed down by U.S. District Judge Michael Simon, prohibits the policy from taking effect for 28 days. The next hearing is set for Nov. 22.

The policy, which would have taken effect Sunday, was introduced last month and would primarily affect people attempting to immigrate to the U.S. to join family members.

The White House has described the policy as a health care system safeguard that would prevent immigrants from enrolling in Medicaid or going to emergency rooms with no insurance, the Journal reported.

Critics of the policy say it would bar poor immigrants from entering the country.

READ MORE:  Here's Why President Trump Calls Him Liddle' Adam Schiff

Similar to Trump's travel ban, the policy was created by executive order.

The president has often been critical of the nation's legal immigration system. Under the current system, family members of U.S. citizens are usually granted visas, and 50,000 green cards are awarded to immigrants from countries that have low numbers of immigrants in the U.S., the paper reported.

And from CBS:

In its latest crackdown on legal immigration, the Trump administration announced Friday it is planning to reject visa applications from immigrants the government determines will not be able to pay for health insurance or cover health care costs in the U.S. The new requirement is set to go into effect November 3. 

In a late-night proclamation signed by President Trump, the White House said the government will only accept immigrant visa petitions made abroad if the applicants demonstrate that they will have the ability to secure health insurance within a month of their arrival in the U.S. If that's not possible, then petitioners would need to prove they have the financial resources to pay "reasonably foreseeable medical costs" — a standard not defined in the order.

The order claims U.S. hospitals and health care providers are not being reimbursed for treating those who are uninsured. "The costs associated with this care are passed on to the American people in the form of higher taxes, higher premiums, and higher fees for medical services," the proclamation reads. 

According to the order, the new requirement will not apply to people who already hold immigrant visas, asylum seekers, refugees, children of U.S. citizens living overseas or holders of special visas for Iraqi and Afghan nationals who helped U.S. forces in those countries.    

READ MORE:  CBS Publishes List of “Clinton Associates Who Allegedly Died Mysteriously”

"This administration is just fixated on the erroneous notion that immigrants are zapping taxpayer resources," Doug Rand, a former White House official under President Obama, told CBS News. "So, they are kind of looking under every rock they possible can for any way to exclude people who aren't wealthy." 

Rand, who co-founded Boundless Immigration after leaving the Obama administration, called the change "very sweeping" in nature, saying it would apply to many of the approximately half a million people who typically apply to immigrate to the U.S. every year. 

Other immigration experts said the new requirement represents the latest effort in a larger campaign by the administration to overhaul the nation's legal immigration system. 

"The administration is on-the-record wanting to cut legal immigration, and particularly wanting to cut legal immigration of lower-skilled, lower-paid immigrants who are probably less likely to have health insurance coverage," said Randy Capps, director of U.S. programs research at the nonpartisan think tank the Migration Policy Institute.