US – (Special Correspondent/Web Desk) – A US federal judge has struck down the 75 countries visa ban, calling the policy unlawful and beyond the government’s legal power. The ruling comes as major relief for thousands of families waiting on immigrant visas, including many from Pakistan.
Judge Jeannette Vargas made the decision in a Manhattan court on Friday. She said the policy broke federal immigration law and stripped away rights that Congress never intended to remove.
The banned policy started in January this year. It stopped visa officers from approving immigrant visas for people from 75 nations. Pakistan was one of the countries on this list.
Other affected countries included Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay from Latin America. Bosnia and Albania from the Balkans were also on the list. Bangladesh, along with several African and Middle Eastern nations, faced the same restriction.
The State Department had claimed these applicants posed a risk of becoming a “public charge.” This means officials feared these visa holders might rely too much on government support once in the US.
Judge Vargas disagreed strongly with this reasoning. She wrote that the policy directly went against the rules Congress had already set for visa officers. Her written order called the ban “patently unlawful.”
Two rights groups filed the lawsuit that led to this win. The Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together took the case to court. Visa applicants and their US family sponsors joined them as plaintiffs.
This ruling now opens a path for many stalled visa applications to move forward again. Families who had been waiting anxiously may soon see their cases processed under normal rules.
The State Department has not yet responded to the court’s decision. It remains unclear if the department will appeal this ruling or accept it fully.
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