A federal judge in Manhattan struck down the Trump administration’s suspension of immigrant visas for applicants from 75 countries on Friday, ruling that the policy exceeded Marco Rubio’s statutory authority and was patently unlawful. Jeannette Vargas said the State Department could not categorically block visas based on nationality.
The ruling lands now because the suspension has been in force since January, freezing a process that affects families and workers tied to Latin America, the Balkans, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. In practical terms, it means the government cannot keep treating applicants from those countries as a single class for a blanket visa cutoff.
The lawsuit was brought by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together, along with visa applicants and US citizens who were sponsoring family members from the designated countries. Their challenge turned on a straightforward question of power: whether the Department of State could suspend immigrant visas across 75 countries because of nationality alone. Vargas answered no. She wrote that the policy was patently unlawful and went beyond what the law allows.
The State Department had argued that applicants from those countries were at a high risk for becoming a public charge and for turning to local, state and federal government resources in the United States. But that rationale did not survive the court’s review. The judge treated the nationality-based prohibition as the problem itself, not a policy detail that could be repaired with better wording or a narrower memo.
The freeze was one of several restrictions the administration imposed in rapid succession, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights. It followed a broader travel ban covering 39 countries that took effect January 1, and a pause on diversity visa issuance in late December. Together, those steps marked a swift tightening of immigration policy under President Donald Trump, with rights groups arguing the changes reached beyond visa administration and into speech and due process concerns.
What happens next is still unresolved. The State Department has not said whether it will appeal or how quickly it will move to lift the suspension, leaving applicants in the same place for now but under a ruling that has already stripped the policy of legal force.
