Trump dealt 'shock' immigration defeat as fight barrels toward Supreme Court: legal expert

A sweeping defeat of Trump's immigration policies will likely end up in the Supreme Court, a legal expert flagged.

Last week, a federal judge in Rhode Island struck down four Trump policies that froze immigration benefits for nationals from 39 countries, attorney Rachel Cohen said on Legal AF. Cohen is now expecting that challenge to land in the Supreme Court.

"I would be shocked if it didn't go all the way up to the Supreme Court," Cohen said, referring to the case Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The administration entered final judgment earlier this week and has already filed a notice of appeal, Cohen added.

The Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act with policies that froze asylum decisions, green cards, work permits, and naturalization for people from countries on Trump's travel-ban list, according to Cohen's description of a ruling by Chief Judge John McConnell.

"It actually is, I would say, one of the most sweeping kind of rebukes to the Trump administration when it comes to its attempts to target legal immigrants that we have seen thus far," Cohen said. "Trump has been attacking legal immigrants left and right by changing policies as much as possible."

Cohen also flagged a deeper problem with Trump's policies, grinding the important immigration process to a halt.

"If you're not even processing any of these applications, basically all that that arm of the government is doing is terrorizing people on the streets, snatching them up," Cohen said, referring to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS and ICE.

She also noted that congressional Republicans moved to increase the ICE budget by $70 billion over the next three years.