US court strikes down Trump visa ban
A U.S. court (and here) has struck down President Trump's suspension of the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, ruling that the policy exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statutory authority. Here is the court order.
Judge Jeannette Vargas, sitting in the Southern District of New York, concluded that the policy was “patently unlawful” and conflicted with federal immigration law, which stripped the secretary of state of authority over consular officers’ adjudication 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.
The court issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together, along with applicants for immigrant visas and U.S, citizens sponsoring family members from the designated countries.
The suspension affected
"applicants from Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay; Balkan nations such as Bosnia and Albania; South Asian countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh; and many nations in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.
The Department of State said 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'."
