A federal court in the Southern District of New York overturned the immigrant visa ban that the Trump administration imposed on citizens from 75 countries this Friday, concluding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio overstepped his legal authority in ordering the measure, as reported by EFE agency.
The judge Jeannette Vargas, appointed by former President Joe Biden, signed a 61-page ruling in which she describes the ban as "manifestly illegal" and rejects the administration's central argument: that applicants from those nations posed a high risk of becoming an "economic burden" on the country.
The suspension, which came into effect on January 21 of this year, affected nearly 40% of the countries in the world and prevented the issuance of permanent residency visas, both for family reunification and employment, although it did not cover temporary tourist or student visas.
Among the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean included in the list were Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Uruguay, in addition to nations such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Russia, Somalia, and Yemen.
For Cuba, the impact of the measure was especially devastating: approvals for permanent residency for Cubans dropped by 99.8%, from 10,984 in February 2025 to just 15 in January 2026, with thousands of files pending indefinitely.
Judge Vargas determined that a cable sent by Rubio to all diplomatic and consular missions ordered the rejection of applications even when the applicant "provided additional evidence demonstrating that they overcame the objection of being considered a public charge." Her conclusion was unequivocal: "The outcome is predetermined. The visa will be denied."
The ruling states that the policy violated the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which prohibits discrimination based on nationality in the granting of visas, as well as a separate provision that prevents the Secretary of State from interfering in the individual decisions of consular officers.
The ruling also overturns all visa denials based solely on that policy, which could lead to the review of thousands of already processed applications.
The lawsuit was filed in February by Democracy Forward and the National Immigration Law Center on behalf of five Colombian professionals with rejected applications and six U.S. citizens whose relatives in Ghana, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Ethiopia were affected.
The administration achieved a partial victory: the judge agreed that the policy was not the kind of formal regulation that should be subjected to public consultation before its implementation.
The State Department, for its part, merely noted that it "typically does not comment on ongoing legal disputes," while insisting that the administration "protects the American people by maintaining the highest standards of assessment and verification for visa applicants."
This ruling adds to a series of judicial setbacks to Trump’s immigration policies recorded throughout the year, in a context where the administration has revoked more than 175,000 visas since the beginning of its term.
“The Trump-Vance Administration cannot weaponize immigration law to ban entire countries, separate families, and deny rights guaranteed by the Constitution without being held accountable for it,” stated Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward.
Both parties have until September 11 to propose how to resolve the remainder of the case, and the administration retains the option to appeal the ruling.
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