WASHINGTON
\nA U.S. judge on Friday struck down, opens new tab a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to \u200bapplicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of \u200cState Marco Rubio\u2019s statutory authority.
\nU.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy that the State Department announced in January was \u201cpatently unlawful\u201d and ran afoul of federal \u200bimmigration law, which explicitly stripped the secretary of state of \u200bauthority over consular officers\u2019 processing of immigrant visas.
\n\u201cThe Policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of \u200bthe applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme,\u201d she wrote.
\nThe State \u200bDepartment\u2019s suspension that also took effect in January impacted applicants from Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay; Balkan nations such as Bosnia and Albania; South Asian \u200bcountries Pakistan and Bangladesh; and those from many nations in Africa, the \u200bMiddle East, and the Caribbean.
\nThe State Department said applicants from those countries were \u201cat a \u200chigh risk for becoming a public charge and recourse to local, state and federal government resources in the United States.\u201d
\nThe department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
\nVargas, an appointee of Democratic \u200bformer President Joe \u200bBiden, issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together along with \u200bapplicants for immigrant visas and U.S. citizens who are \u200bsponsoring family members from the designated countries for immigrant visas.
\nPresident Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive immigration crackdown that he says is aimed at improving domestic security.
\nRights groups \u2060say \u200bthe crackdown has violated free speech and due \u200bprocess rights and has created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised \u200bconcerns about racial profiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON A U.S. judge on Friday struck down, opens new tab a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to \u200bapplicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of \u200cState Marco Rubio\u2019s statutory authority. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy that the State Department announced in January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n