Why a Catholic Diocese in New Jersey Is Suing the U.S. Government

The Catholic diocese in Paterson, New Jersey, has filed suit against the U.S. government, looking for a reverse in the visa procedures for religious workers—a rule they believe could threaten the status and future of foreign-born clergy in the United States.

The diocese is joined by five priests in the lawsuit filed on Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court in Newark, brought against the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. According to the suit, four of the priests’ visas are due to  expire in 2025, and one is set to expire in 2026.

Many religious workers immigrate to the U.S. under temporary visas called R-1, which allow them to work in the U.S. for five years, at which point they can petition for permanent residency under a special category called EB-4.

The change to the Immigration and Nationality Act they are fighting against was announced in March 2023. Categories of applicants that were previously in a separate line—including minors from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador—have now been added to the same queue as that of religious worker visas. Typically, Congress establishes a maximum number of green cards available per year per category, which is usually determined based on one’s professional or familial ties to the U.S.

With this change, Congress added masses of applications to their category while retaining the cap of green cards to be issued per year, causing backlogs in green card applications by clergy and religious workers.

The lawsuit brought forth by the Catholic diocese in New Jersey alleges that the change was done “without proper notice” and that it “directly threatens” the plaintiffs’ ability to carry out their “carry out their religious and spiritual vocation.”

“The abrupt shift in the calculation of visa availability and sudden enforcement of that agency action imposes substantial burdens on Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiffs will necessarily be deprived of their ability to engage in their religious vocation in the United States and will face significant undue disruption, cost, and delay relating to their respective immigration matters.”

TIME has reached out to The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for comment.

In a letter to Congress in July 2023, Reverend Mark Seitz, Bishop of El Paso, Texas, argued against the procedural change not just on behalf of religious workers, but on behalf of young children who “often wait for years as they are required to compete with adults for visas in the EB-4 category.”

“Unfortunately, the current situation violates both Congress’ intent to provide religious organizations and our communities with needed workers and its express desire to protect vulnerable immigrant youth,” Seitz wrote.

In a statement emailed to TIME, a U.S. State Department spokesperson acknowledged that the 2023 policy change had created significantly longer worldwide waits for religious worker green cards, though they did not comment on the litigation. 

“This is an untenable situation,” said Lance Conklin, who co-chairs the religious workers group of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, in a statement to the Associated Press. “The lawsuit is representative of the way a lot of people feel.”