Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump Administration’s Discriminatory 75-Country Immigrant Visa Ban
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
A Manhattan federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s sweeping and xenophobic policy denying immigrant visas to nationals of 75 countries grossly exceeded legal authority and violated anti-discrimination statutes designed to protect marginalized communities.
In a significant victory for immigrant rights and the fight against institutional racism, a federal judge in Manhattan on Friday declared the Trump administration’s draconian ban on immigrant visas for nationals of 75 countries unlawful. The judge found that the administration’s policy, which targeted nearly 40 percent of the world’s nations—including Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Haiti, Somalia, and Russia—was a blatant overreach of the Secretary of State’s statutory authority and an attack on global communities of color, all under the pretext of preventing supposed reliance on public benefits.
Judge Jeannette Vargas condemned the policy for forcing consular officers to automatically refuse visas based solely on an applicant’s country of origin, ignoring individual circumstances and financial independence. This approach flies in the face of existing law, which requires a fair, case-by-case assessment of an applicant’s finances, health, skills, and family situation before labeling them a 'public charge.'
'The outcome is predetermined,' Vargas wrote. 'The visa will be refused.'
The judge’s decision highlighted the administration’s violation of the landmark 1965 law that prohibits discrimination by nationality in visa decisions, as well as another statute that prevents the Secretary of State from dictating how consular officers evaluate individual cases. The ban, which cruelly separated families and blocked workers from seeking opportunity, affected permanent-residence visas for family reunification and employment, though it spared nonimmigrant visas such as tourist or student visas.
The plaintiffs—U.S. citizens with family-based petitions for relatives in Ghana, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, along with Colombian workers seeking employment visas—stood up for justice and equality. While the administration managed to win a narrow technical point, with the court agreeing the policy was not a formal rule requiring public comment, the broader victory for human rights stands.
Judge Vargas, a Biden appointee, gave both parties until September 11 to propose a resolution and noted the administration may appeal. The Justice Department and the White House have yet to answer for this discriminatory policy.