US Judge Strikes Down Trump’s Visa Ban against Nigeria, 74 Other Countries
Sunday Ehigiator
A United States District Court in Manhattan has nullified the President Donald Trump administration’s policy suspending the processing and issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, including Nigeria.
In a ruling delivered on Friday, U.S District Judge Jeannette Vargas described the January directive by the State Department as patently unlawful and said it exceeded the statutory authority of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The policy, which took effect on January 21, had barred the issuance of immigrant visas to nationals of 75 countries because they posed “a high risk for becoming a public charge” and of relying on U.S. government cash assistance.
Affected countries are: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea and Haiti.
Other countries on the list are: Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Republic of Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
President Donald Trump had, early in the year, published a list of welfare-dependent rates among immigrants, noting that about 33.3 per cent of Nigerian immigrant households received some form of public assistance.
According to the directive, older or overweight applicants, as well as those with any past use of government cash assistance or institutionalisation, can be denied.
But in delivering the judgment, Judge Vargas, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, held that the suspension ran afoul of federal immigration law, which expressly removed the Secretary of State’s authority over the consular processing of immigrant visas.
“The policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme,” she wrote.
Immigrant rights groups, Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together, filed the suit, alongside U.S. citizens sponsoring family members and visa applicants from the affected countries.
The State Department had, in a cable sent to U.S missions in January, directed consular officers to refuse applicants whose visas were “print-authorized” but not yet printed.
It said the suspension was part of a full review to ensure the highest level of screening and vetting and to prevent foreign nationals from exploiting U.S welfare systems.
“Applicants from these countries are at a high risk for becoming a public charge and recourse to local, state and federal government resources in the United States,” the cable stated.
Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott had defended the move, saying: “The State Department will use its long-standing authority to deem ineligible potential immigrants who would become a public charge in the United States and exploit the generosity of the American people.
“Immigration from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits.”