The administration halted visas to people from 75 nations last month due to the risk of immigrants becoming dependent on government welfare.
Nonprofit groups Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., and African Communities Together, along with multiple individuals, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday over a policy which suspended immigrant visas to foreign nationals from several nations.
Last month, the State Department halted the processing of immigrant visas from 75 countries “whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates,” the department said in a Jan. 14 post on X. Affected countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Cuba, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Thailand, and Uruguay.
The pause impacts nations “whose immigrants often become public charges on the United States upon arrival.” Being a “public charge” means the visa applicant is likely to become dependent on government benefits. Such a determination is a ground for denying visa applications.
“We are working to ensure the generosity of the American people will no longer be abused,” the department said. The visa freeze “will remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people.”
The rule came into effect on Jan. 21.
The lawsuit, filed at the District Court, Southern District of New York, against the State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, criticized the visa ban.
“As Congress and the courts have long recognized, ‘public charge’ refers only to an individualized determination that a noncitizen is likely to become primarily and permanently dependent on the government for subsistence, demonstrated by reliance on cash assistance or long-term institutional care at public expense,” the complaint said.
“The law has never deemed a person inadmissible merely because they have received, or may one day need, non-cash public benefits or private charitable assistance.”
Nationwide, many applicants for immigrant visas are not eligible for cash welfare and continue to remain ineligible for several years, said the lawsuit.
The ban refuses visas solely on the basis of nationality and ends up “unlawfully denying and stripping” working people and families of individualized assessment of their cases, said the complaint.
The lawsuit also criticized a consular cable issued in November that supports the implementation of public charge grounds of inadmissibility to the United States.
“This case seeks to preserve what Congress intended: an individualized immigration system that honors the INA’s statutory commitment to family unity and bars the Executive from rewriting immigration law by fiat,” the lawsuit said, referring to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The plaintiffs brought the action under the INA, Administrative Procedure Act, and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, seeking to vacate the visa ban, consular cable, and related actions, asking that they be declared unlawful.
The Epoch Times reached out to the State Department for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
In a Feb. 2 update, the State Department said it was “undergoing a full review of all screening and vetting policies to ensure that immigrants from high-risk countries do not unlawfully utilize welfare in the United States or become a public charge.”
“President Trump has made clear that immigrants must be financially self-sufficient and not be a financial burden to Americans.”
The department clarified that no immigrant visas have so far been revoked under this specific guidance. The visa freeze applies only to immigrant visa applications. The rule does not apply to tourist visas.
