Judge Blocks Deportation of 40,000

MIAMI — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked efforts by the government to deport as many as 40,000 legal immigrants, most of whom came from Nicaragua years ago, clearing the way for a full-fledged trial on the issue.

In issuing a preliminary injunction against the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Justice Department, District Judge James Lawrence King said he had rarely seen such a “dramatic, heart-rending and powerfully persuasive case of irreparable harm to literally tens of thousands of people.”

King set trial on the issue for Jan. 5.

Although the order pertains specifically to thousands of immigrants in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, attorney Ira J. Kurzban said the ruling “will influence the fate of hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans and others throughout the U.S.”

The ruling stems from a class-action suit brought on behalf of immigrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti and other nations who had been denied the right to seek suspension of deportation, a remedy allowed those persons who have been in the United States for at least seven years and who would suffer extreme hardship if returned to his or her country.

Until recently, Nicaraguans who fled the civil war in their Central American homeland in the 1980s were encouraged to stay here even though they received deportation orders. Many became tax-paying homeowners with children and spouses who are U.S. citizens.

But under immigration law reforms, many of those residents were notified that they would be deported and were barred from seeking a suspension of that order.

In his 67-page opinion, King sided with plaintiffs’ attorneys, who described the new government policy as a cruel deception. “They came with the hope that a nation renowned throughout the civilized world for justice, fairness and respect for human rights would help them in their time of need,” King wrote.

Although the ruling directly affects only the three Southern states, experts say the sweeping decision could provide legal ammunition in cases against aspects of the new immigration law now pending in federal courts from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. The issues in the Miami lawsuit mirror provisions being contested nation-wide.

“This ruling can be persuasive, particularly when it involves interpretation of a new law,” said Robert Rubin, a San Francisco attorney in a case challenging new provisions allowing the “expedited” expulsion of certain illegal immigrants without court hearings.

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The new law will have its broadest impact in California, where tens of thousands could eventually face deportation with limited court appeals. Among them are many El Salvadorans and Guatemalans who, like the Nicaraguans in Florida, would be denied “hardship” exceptions to deportation under the government’s current interpretation of the new law.

In a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco, a federal judge has already issued a preliminary injunction barring authorities from deporting immigrants challenging a new, 4,000-per-year limit on the number of hardship exceptions issued nationwide. “The courts are stepping in and saying they’re not going to interpret this law as broadly as the INS wants to interpret Congress’ intent,” said Marc Van Der Hout, an attorney in the San Francisco case.

In Washington, a Justice Department spokesman said the Miami decision was under review.

Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Los Angeles contributed to this story.