A United States District Court in Manhattan has cancelled the Donald Trump administration’s policy suspending immigrant visa processing and issuance for citizens of 75 countries, including Nigeria.
The ruling was delivered on Friday by U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, who found that the policy introduced by the State Department was unlawful and went beyond the powers granted to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The policy came into effect on January 21 and stopped the issuance of immigrant visas to nationals of the affected countries.
The Trump administration had said the move was aimed at preventing immigrants who could become dependent on public assistance from entering the United States.
Nigeria was among the countries affected by the suspension, alongside Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Republic of Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
The administration had argued that people from the countries on the list faced a higher risk of relying on welfare and other forms of public support in the U.S.
Trump had earlier released figures on welfare use among immigrant households, including a claim that about 33.3 per cent of Nigerian immigrant households received some form of public assistance.
The policy also gave consular officers grounds to refuse certain applicants based on factors such as age, weight, previous use of government cash assistance and past institutionalisation.
Judge Vargas, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, ruled that the suspension conflicted with federal immigration law. She said the law did not give the Secretary of State the power to impose a blanket ban on immigrant visa processing based on nationality.
The case was brought by immigrant rights organisations, including the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together. U.S. citizens sponsoring relatives and visa applicants from some of the affected countries also joined the legal action.
Following the original directive, the State Department had instructed U.S. missions to stop issuing visas to certain applicants whose visas had already been approved for printing but had not yet been printed.
The department said the suspension was part of a wider review of immigration procedures designed to strengthen screening and prevent foreign nationals from taking advantage of U.S. welfare programmes.
The Trump administration has pursued tougher immigration policies since returning to office in January, with measures aimed at tightening entry requirements and increasing screening of foreign nationals.
The latest court decision now challenges one of those measures and could affect immigrant visa applicants from Nigeria and the other 74 countries covered by the policy.
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