WASHINGTON: As many as 1103 plaintiffs challenging President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, across five different lawsuits, got their day in court in federal court in the District of Columbia.

Reports said the plaintiffs include as many as 918 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery selectees who are natives of over 70 countries, U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents with approved immigrant visa petitions for their foreign national immediate relative parents, spouses, children, or siblings, Indian nationals who are beneficiaries of H-1B skilled worker petitions, U.S. employers who hire H-1Bs, and entities designated by the Department of State as Exchange Visitor Program sponsors (for J-1s).

It should be noted that Trump had issued an presidential proclamation (PP 10052) that extended a June 22, 2020 presidential proclamation (PP 10014), which banned most immigration into the U.S., through December 31, 2020.

The new proclamation also extends the ban to cover certain nonimmigrant categories- such as H-1Bs. All plaintiffs are negatively impacted by PP 10052.

The DV lottery selectee plaintiffs face a September 30, 2020 deadline.

With the Immigration Act of 1990, Congress created the DV Lottery program to increase diversity in the U.S. immigrant population by providing 50,000 Diversity visas to nationals of countries that have had low immigration rates to the United States, reports said.

However, the statute only allow for selectees to be issued the visas up until the end of the fiscal year, which ends September 30, 2020.

Since the State Department has implemented PP 10052 in such a way so to suspend the issuance of those visa between now and the end of the year, the government has essentially suspended the DV lottery program.