NEW YORK — A federal judge on Friday vacated a Trump administration policy that had halted immigrant visa processing from 75 countries, ruling that Secretary of State Marco Rubio exceeded his authority when he ordered consular officers to refuse applicants based on nationality alone.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote that the State Department directive was "contrary to law and in excess of statutory authority" under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The policy had covered nationals of Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Somalia, Brazil, Yemen and dozens of other countries the administration had deemed likely to require public assistance.
The decision, from the Southern District of New York, restores individualized visa review for applicants whose files had been frozen since earlier this year.
What the judge found
Vargas wrote that Congress granted consular officers exclusive authority to determine visa eligibility on specific statutory grounds. A blanket ban keyed to country of origin, she wrote, "runs afoul" of federal law by mandating "the refusal of visas to eligible applicants without any basis in law" and amounted to "a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme."
The State Department had justified the suspension using Council of Economic Advisers data indicating that more than 30 percent of households with immigrants from the 75 designated countries received some form of public assistance. Consular officers were told to halt immigrant applications under a broader November order tightening screening for potential "public charges." A separate cable directed embassies to press non-immigrant applicants to prove they would not seek benefits during a U.S. stay.
Who sued
Two nonprofit organizations and 11 individuals brought the challenge, including six whose relatives had been denied visas and five people living abroad who had filed employment-based petitions.
Anna Gallagher, executive director of CLINIC, said the case fundamentally concerned "keeping families together." Diana Konate, deputy executive director for policy and advocacy at African Communities Together, called the decision "a tremendous victory for the rule of law" and said the ban had "cruelly kept families and loved ones apart."
Administration response
The State Department said Saturday that the administration remained committed to "protecting the American people by upholding the highest standards of screening and vetting of visa applicants." It declined further comment, citing the pending litigation.
Friday's ruling is the second federal-court setback for the administration's immigration agenda this summer. In June, another judge struck down a separate Trump policy tightening rules across asylum, work-permit, green-card and citizenship tracks, finding it left immigrants in "indeterminate legal limbo."
The State Department did not say whether it would appeal.