A U.S. federal court has invalidated the suspension of immigrant visas for 75 countries imposed earlier this year by the Donald Trump administration, ruling that Secretary of State Marco Rubio exceeded his legal authority in implementing the measure.
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The judge for the Southern District of New York, Jeannette Vargas, ruled the day before in a 61-page decision that the ban is “manifestly illegal” and questioned the Administration’s argument that applicants posed a high risk of becoming an “economic burden” on the United States.
The magistrate noted that visas had been ordered denied even to immigrants who met the requirements and were likely to be self-sufficient, violating the regulation that requires individualized assessments of each case.
Among the countries affected by this directive were nations from Latin America and the Caribbean such as Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Uruguay, as well as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Nigeria, Russia, Somalia, Thailand, and Yemen.
The lawsuit included five Colombian professionals who were denied visas under this policy, as well as six U.S. citizens with family members affected in Ghana, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, according to The New York Times.
The ruling also overturns denials based solely on this directive, which could lead to the review of thousands of already processed applications.
“This decision represents a significant victory for the hundreds of thousands of families across the country and the world whose lives were thrown into chaos due to an illegal and discriminatory ban,” said Joanna Cuevas Ingram, lead attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, who emphasized that immigration laws “cannot be used to justify discrimination.”
Meanwhile, the president of the NGO Democracy Forward, Skye Perryman, described the ruling as a “resounding rejection of a policy that caused enormous harm to families and communities.”
Perryman added: “The Trump-Vance Administration cannot weaponize immigration law to veto entire countries, separate families, and deny constitutional rights without accountability.”
So far, neither the State Department nor the White House has commented on the court decision.
