WASHINGTON, August 24, 2026– A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration’s policy suspending immigrant visa processing for applicants from 75 countries, ruling that the measure exceeded the statutory authority of the Secretary of State and violated federal immigration law.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeannette Vargas handed down her decision on Friday and found that the January policy was “obviously unlawful,” amounting to an abrogation of the statute that applies to the processing of immigrant visas by consular officials. The judge said that the January policy, which categorically bars the issuance of immigrant visas to individuals based on their nationality, violates the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, which specifically denies the Secretary of State control over the consular officials in this regard.
The suspension by the State Department, which took effect in January, impacted applicants from a broad spectrum of countries in Latin America, the Balkans, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, such as Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Bosnia, Albania, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In explaining the policy, the department claimed applicants from those countries were “at a high risk for becoming a public charge and recourse to local, state and federal government resources in the United States.” The department failed to reply to an immediate request for comment on the decision.
The case was filed by organizations representing immigrants’ rights, including the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together, together with immigrant visa applicants and U.S. citizens sponsoring family members from the listed countries. Vargas, who was appointed by the previous president, Joe Biden, ruled with the plaintiffs that the administration had exceeded its legal authority in instituting a nationwide ban on immigrant visas.
This is the latest blow to the immigration enforcement regime by the Trump Administration, which is being accused of undermining free speech and due process rights, creating an atmosphere that is not safe, especially for the ethnic minorities who have reported cases of racial profiling. This judgment comes as part of a string of judicial setbacks on the immigration policies of the administration, including recent judgments barring some immigration enforcement activities around religious places and also restricting the use of overly wide subpoenas in immigration inquiries.
