Immigration lawyers are keeping up the fight against Bill 9, the Quebec government's plan to revamp the immigration process, and to ensure 18,000 people currently in the process of becoming citizens can continue to do so.

On Tuesday morning the Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association presented its brief on public hearings into the bill, wherein they stated their opposition to the government's goals.

Even though the bill is nowhere close to becoming a law, Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette had ordered bureaucrats to throw out the applications from 18,000 people, but the immigration lawyers opposed that measure in court.

On Monday a Superior Court judge ruled in favour of the lawyers and told the government to resume processing applications, saying the government had no legal basis to stop admitting immigrants until a law was passed.

Fresh off that victory Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, president of the Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association, needled Jolin-Barrette at the hearing and urged him to remember his full title: Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness.

Cliche-Rivard said that Jolin-Barrette seemed to think that meant he was the Minister of Coercion, which Jolin-Barrette did not appreciate.

"Yes, yesterday was a victory for sure. A short victory but a big victory. Let's renew the injunction, let's see how many cases we can have processed as soon as we can," said Cliche-Rivard.

Other lawyers in the association have estimated that bureaucrats could admit up to 500 immigrants during the next ten days.

"Let's see what we can do for the other ones as well because we don't want to leave anyone behind," said Cliche-Rivard.

The CAQ government wants to reduce the number of immigrants coming to Quebec, from 50,000 to 40,000, in hopes that those who are selected will assimilate into Quebec society and be more likely to find work.

"The will of the government didn't change. We want to make a clear reform of the immigration system and that's what we intend to do," said Jolin-Barrette.

Meanwhile opposition MNAs were gladdened by the ruling against the provincial government, saying it was a sign that the CAQ's planned reforms did not make sense.