US Judge blocks Trump’s immigrant visa suspension affecting 75 countries

A US federal judge has overturned the suspension of immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries that was issued by the Trump administration. It was ruled that the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had exceeded his legal authority.

This ruling was delivered by Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the US District Court of the Southern District of New York on August 21, 2026. A case was filed by Catholic Legal Immigration Network, African Communities Together, affected visa applicants, and US citizens seeking to bring relatives to the country.

“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,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

The Trump administration defended the policy by saying that applicants from listed countries were at a higher risk of relying on the US government.

Judge Vargas found that the State Department’s policy conflicted with the framework established by Congress for immigrant visa decisions.

However, the decision does not mean that all the people who have been affected will automatically receive a visa. According to the lawsuit, the administration had put an unjustified restriction on the basis of nationality instead of considering individual cases.

It removes a policy that had blocked visa issuance depending on one’s nationality. The court also reversed visa refusals issued under the challenged policy and ordered that the affected cases will be reviewed on an individual basis.

The State Department introduced and implemented the suspension on January 21. It covered nationals of 75 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and the Balkans.

Some of the nations affected by this visa suspension policy include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The State Department has not issued any formal statement on this as of now. This ruling is a major setback to the policies of the Trump administration on immigration and could allow thousands of affected family-based and other immigrant visa cases to process and move forward.