Trump admin responds to lawsuit from Healey aide over work authorization

An aide to Gov. Maura Healey sued the Trump administration last month, arguing that the government’s “arbitrary and capricious” visa application policies could cause her to lose her job. The administration responded this week, contending that Massachusetts federal district court does not have proper jurisdiction and that “national security concerns” outweigh any harm to her. 

Valentina Amaro Bowser, an immigrant from Venezuela who worked as a media director for Healey beginning in 2023, is suing the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Bowser has been working for the state on an H-1B visa that was set to expire on Feb. 14. 

Bowser has studied, lived, and worked in the U.S. since 2013. She has been granted two student visas and two H-1B visas in total. Bowser is an Emerson College graduate who says she has never violated the terms of her visas. She has never been arrested or charged with a crime anywhere in the world and has complied with all immigration laws, according to her lawsuit. 

She married a U.S. citizen in 2024 and applied for permanent residency in January 2025. USCIS processed her application throughout 2025, fingerprinting her twice. Based on processing time estimates for residency applications at the time, Bowser had no reason to believe that the case would not be adjudicated by the time her work authorization expired, according to the lawsuit. 

Bowser and her husband attended an interview with a USCIS official in Boston in early January. They were told that the official was not permitted to approve their applications due to a hold on applications for Venezuelan citizens that the Trump administration implemented in December. At that point, Bowser had waited more than a year for the interview. 

State officials are in support of extending Bowser’s visa, according to the lawsuit. Healey issued a statement earlier this month saying that Bowser “has done everything right.”

“[Bowser] loves our country and wants to become a United States citizen — and she deserves to be. Instead, the federal government is taking away her livelihood,” Healey said in a statement to The Boston Globe. “We are not going to stop fighting for Valentina and for every member of our immigrant communities who is being targeted by this cruelty.”

Bowser was placed on unpaid leave last Saturday, the day her visa was set to expire, a spokesperson for Healey told the Globe this week. 

Healey’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Fitzgerald filed a new response to the lawsuit on Monday on behalf of the Trump administration. He argued that the federal district court does not have jurisdiction over the case. 

Fitzgerald also pointed to the presidential proclamation issued in December, which says that most of the countries identified in it “exhibit woeful inadequacies in screening, vetting, and provision of information.” He said that the killing of a National Guard member in Washington, D.C., late last year was one example showing that more vetting is required. That attack was allegedly carried out by an Afghan national.