Biden-Appointed Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Visa Freeze Covering 75 Countries

A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden has struck down a Trump administration policy that suspended immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries, ruling that Secretary of State Marco Rubio exceeded his legal authority when imposing the sweeping restrictions.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas issued the decision Friday in Manhattan, declaring the State Department policy “patently unlawful.” The suspension had been in effect since January and prevented immigrant visas from being issued to applicants from dozens of countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, the Caribbean and the Balkans.

The administration implemented the policy as part of President Trump’s broader effort to reduce immigration and prevent immigrants likely to depend on taxpayer-funded benefits from entering the United States. The State Department said nationals of the designated countries presented a heightened risk of becoming a “public charge” after arriving in the country.

Among the countries affected were Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Albania. Other nations on the list included Afghanistan, Egypt, Russia and Thailand, bringing the total to 75 countries and covering a substantial portion of the world.

Vargas concluded that Rubio did not have the statutory power to impose a blanket prohibition on immigrant visas based on an applicant’s nationality. She ruled that federal immigration law instead gives individual consular officers the authority to evaluate whether applicants qualify for immigrant visas under criteria established by Congress.

The judge determined that the administration’s policy improperly prevented consular officers from performing those individual assessments. Under the suspension, an applicant otherwise qualified for an immigrant visa could still be rejected simply because the person was a national of one of the 75 designated countries.

Vargas also set aside visa denials that were issued solely because of the administration’s policy. That means affected applications can once again be evaluated individually under the normal requirements of federal immigration law rather than being automatically rejected because of nationality.

The lawsuit was brought by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together along with individual immigrant visa applicants and American citizens attempting to sponsor relatives. The plaintiffs argued that the suspension had prevented families and workers who were following the legal immigration process from obtaining visas.

Immigration advocates celebrated the decision, arguing that the administration had attempted to impose restrictions that Congress never authorized. The administration, meanwhile, has defended its broader immigration policies as necessary to strengthen screening, protect national security and prevent newcomers from becoming dependent on public assistance.

The ruling specifically concerns immigrant visas, which are generally used by people seeking permanent residence in the United States. It does not amount to a blanket ruling requiring the government to approve applicants from the affected countries; consular officers can still deny individual applications when applicants fail to satisfy existing immigration requirements.

The decision represents a significant legal setback for one of the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict legal immigration. Rather than allowing the State Department to automatically suspend immigrant visas for nationals of the 75 countries, Vargas has ordered the government to return to individual evaluations unless the ruling is overturned or otherwise modified through further litigation.