A US judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statutory authority.
US District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy that the State Department announced in January was “patently unlawful” and ran afoul of federal immigration law, which explicitly stripped the secretary of state of authority over consular officers’ processing of immigrant visas.
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. Vargas, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together along with applicants for immigrant visas and US citizens who are sponsoring family members from the designated countries for immigrant visas.
“The Policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme,” she wrote. The State Department said applicants from those countries were “at a high risk for becoming a public charge and recourse to local, state and federal government resources in the United States. President Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive immigration crackdown that he says is aimed at improving domestic security.
