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A radical of civilian rights organisations connected Monday (February 2, 2026) sued the State Department implicit its caller intermission connected the processing of migrant visas for citizens from 75 countries, arguing the argumentation “eviscerate decades of settled migration law.”
The suit filed successful national tribunal successful Manhattan asked a justice to contented a tribunal bid blocking the policy, which took effect connected January 21.
The ailment asserted that the State Department’s argumentation is “based connected an unsupported and demonstrably mendacious assertion that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly trust connected currency payment and are likely to go ‘public charges.’”
“A visa is simply a privilege not a right,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said successful a statement, adding that the visa argumentation prevents billions of dollars successful waste, fraud, and abuse.
“The Department is pausing issuance to measure and heighten screening and vetting procedures - but we volition ne'er halt warring for American citizens first,” Mr. Pigott said.
The suit was brought by the National Immigration Law Center and different groups connected behalf of a wide scope of plaintiffs, including U.S. citizens who accidental they person been separated from household members due to the fact that of the policy.
Another plaintiff is an endocrinologist from Colombia who was approved for an employment-based visa but cannot person it due to the fact that Colombia is 1 of the countries taxable to the policy.
The intermission has impacted applicants from Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, Balkan countries specified arsenic Bosnia and Albania, South Asian countries Pakistan and Bangladesh, and those from galore nations successful Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.
The State Department argumentation does not interaction U.S. visitant visas, which person been successful the spotlight fixed the United States is hosting the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics.
A State Department cablegram outlining the determination and seen by Reuters said the Department was undergoing a “full review” of each policies, regulations and guidance to guarantee “the highest level of screening and vetting” for each U.S. visa applicants.
The cable, sent to U.S. missions, said applicants from the 75 impacted countries “are astatine a precocious hazard for becoming a nationalist complaint and recourse to local, authorities and national authorities resources in the United States.”
