Judge overturns suspension of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries

A federal judge in New York on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy that suspended the issuance of immigrant visas for applicants from 75 countries, ruling that the measure exceeded the legal authority of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, based in Manhattan, ruled that the policy announced by the State Department in January was "manifestly unlawful" and contravened federal immigration law, which limits the secretary of state's authority over the processing of immigrant visas by consular officials.

The measure affected applicants from countries in various regions of the world. Among the Latin American countries included were Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay. It also affected Bosnia, Albania, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as citizens of numerous countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

The State Department had justified the suspension by arguing that applicants from those countries posed "a high risk of becoming a public charge and of drawing on local, state, and federal government resources in the United States."

In her ruling, Vargas held that the policy established a blanket ban based on applicants' nationality and that this conflicted with the legal framework established by Congress for the processing of 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," the judge wrote.