Biden Judge Strikes Down Trump-Rubio Visa Freeze Covering 75 High-Risk Countries

A federal judge in Manhattan vacated a State Department policy that had suspended immigrant-visa processing for applicants from 75 countries the Trump administration identified as high-risk for becoming public charges.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, a Biden appointee, issued the 61-page ruling Friday in a lawsuit brought by immigrant-rights groups and individual applicants. She called the January directive “patently unlawful” and beyond Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statutory authority. Vargas ordered consular officers to resume normal, individualized adjudications and to reconsider any prior denials that rested solely on the policy.

The policy, announced in mid-January and effective January 21, halted issuance of immigrant visas—those leading to permanent residence through family sponsorship or employment—for nationals of roughly 40 percent of the world’s countries. The list spanned Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, the Caribbean, the Balkans and parts of Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, including nations such as Brazil, Colombia, Somalia, Haiti, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan. It did not apply to temporary nonimmigrant visas such as tourist or student visas.

The State Department cited data showing immigrants from those countries used public benefits at high rates and argued the pause would protect American taxpayers. An internal cable to consular posts instructed officers to refuse visas even when applicants submitted additional evidence that they would not become public charges. Vargas wrote that the outcome was predetermined and that the policy displaced the individual determinations Congress assigned to consular officers under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The judge found the categorical, nationality-based approach violated the INA’s prohibition on discrimination by nationality in immigrant-visa issuance and exceeded the secretary’s authority. She vacated the policy nationwide and remanded the affected cases for further proceedings consistent with the statute’s requirement of case-by-case review.

The ruling is the latest in a series of lower-court decisions blocking or limiting Trump administration immigration measures. The administration has maintained that the public-charge ground of inadmissibility exists precisely to prevent fiscal burdens and that country-level risk assessments are a legitimate tool for prioritizing enforcement. Whether the government will appeal remains to be seen as processing resumes for applicants from the listed countries.