Judge rules Trump admin can move forward with online registry of illegal immigrants

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can go ahead with a plan to force illegal immigrants to submit their names and personal information into an online registry – and fine and arrest those who don’t comply. The registration requirement was announced by US Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) in February and goes into effect Friday.It requires illegal immigrants, including minors 14 and older, to submit fingerprints and home addresses.Those who fail to register could be fined as much as $5,000 and be sentenced to up to six months in prison, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year.A handful of nonprofit organizations serving immigrant communities – the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA), United Farmworkers of America, Make the Road New York and CASA – sued the Department of Homeland Security last month in an effort to block the registration requirement from going into effect. “Plaintiffs have not shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits,” DC US District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ruled Thursday.

“They have failed to demonstrate that they have standing to bring this suit.” McFadden, an appointee of President Trump, argued that the potential harms of the registry, as alleged by the advocacy groups, were “speculative” and the nonprofits “have not shown that any individual member possesses a concrete harm cognizable by an Article III court.” The judge noted that laws requiring non-citizens to register with the federal government date back to the Alien Registration Act of 1940, with the current requirement stemming from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.Trump’s Day One executive order – Protecting the American People Against Invasion –  directed the Department of Homeland Security to set up the registry under section 262 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and “ensure that failure to comply is treated as a civil and criminal enforcement priority.�...