A federal judge on Friday invalidated a Trump administration policy that banned immigrant visas for individuals from 75 countries, finding it violated the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 by discriminating based on nationality.
District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the Southern District of New York ruled the State Department's ban exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statutory authority. The policy had halted immigrant visas for citizens of Afghanistan, Brazil, Yemen, Iran, Russia, Somalia and 69 other nations, with the administration claiming people from those countries were likely to require public assistance.
The judge found a critical flaw in the ban's execution: consular officers had already individually assessed some applicants and determined they were self-sufficient, yet the administration barred visas anyway. A State Department cable had instructed consulates to refuse visas to applicants who had received approval but whose printed visas had not yet left the building.
"In many ways, this is not a challenging case," Vargas wrote. The 1952 law explicitly prohibits nationality-based discrimination in visa issuance.
Vargas vacated the ban and set aside any visa denials based solely on this policy.
The State Department defended the measure as essential for national security. A spokesperson told NPR the administration is "protecting the American people by upholding the highest standards of screening and vetting of visa applicants" and declined to comment on ongoing litigation. When initially implemented, the State Department said the policy would "remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people."
The ruling marks another judicial defeat for the Trump administration's immigration agenda. In June, the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, rejecting an executive order Trump signed that sought to deny citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to parents who entered illegally or held temporary visas. Lower courts had blocked that order before the high court weighed in.
The Legal Aid Society, which represented plaintiffs challenging the visa ban, called the ruling a victory. Supervising attorney Susan Welber said the 75-country ban was "premised on a fiction" about public resource use by residents of targeted nations.
