A United States District Court in Manhattan, New York, has struck down the Donald Trump administration’s controversial policy that suspended the processing and issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, including Nigeria.
In a decisive ruling delivered on Friday, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas invalidated the January directive issued by the State Department under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, describing the policy as patently unlawful and an overreach of executive statutory authority.
The contentious policy, which took effect on January 21, had barred immigrant visa processing for citizens of dozens of nations after the administration claimed those applicants posed a high risk of becoming a public charge and relying on U.S. government cash assistance.
Among the 75 affected countries spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas were major source nations such as Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Brazil, Pakistan, and Russia.
When defending the move earlier this year, the administration cited internal metrics claiming high welfare utilization rates among foreign households, including a cited 33.3 percent public assistance rate among Nigerian immigrant households in the United States.
Under that directive, consular officials were instructed to pause visa issuance for applicants from the listed countries, while applying stricter screening criteria that could deny older individuals, overweight applicants, or anyone with a history of receiving cash benefits or institutional support.
However, Judge Vargas held that the broad suspension ran afoul of federal immigration statutes, which explicitly reserve consular processing powers and prevent blanket bans based strictly on nationality.
She noted in her decision that the policy, which categorically prohibited the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represented a direct abrogation of the established statutory scheme.
The legal challenge was brought forward by immigrant rights organizations, including the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together, alongside U.S. citizens sponsoring family members whose applications were abruptly halted mid-process.
The ruling effectively blocks the State Department cable that had previously directed U.S. missions worldwide to withhold visas from qualified applicants, marking a major legal setback for the administration's broader immigration crackdown.
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