A coalition of immigration groups, lawyers and US citizens is suing Marco Rubio and the state department to overturn an order that suspended immigrant visa approvals to citizens of 75 countries, alleging the move “eviscerates” decades of settled policy and is blatantly discriminatory.
The suit, filed in a US district court in New York, accuses the department and Rubio, the secretary of state, of denying immigration rights to the nationals of certain countries on “the demonstrably false claim” that they are likely to seek welfare payments.
The state department suspended immigrant visa approvals to nationals of 75 countries last month in a social media post couched in notably undiplomatic language.
It said it would “pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates. The freeze will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people.
“The pause impacts dozens of countries – including Somalia, Haiti, Iran, and Eritrea – whose immigrants often become public charges on the United States upon arrival,” the post continued. “We are working to ensure the generosity of the American people will no longer be abused.”
Among other countries included was Cuba, from which Rubio’s parents arrived as undocumented immigrants in 1956.
An accompanying statement on the department’s website said: “President Trump has made clear that immigrants must be financially self-sufficient and not be a financial burden to Americans. The Department of State is undergoing a full review of all policies, regulations, and guidance to ensure that immigrants from these high-risk countries do not utilize welfare in the United States or become a public charge.”
The order coincided with the deployment of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents to Minnesota, where the Trump administration alleges widespread welfare fraud has occurred and has accused members of the local Somalian community as being key perpetrators.
The lawsuit claims the suspension amounted to a bar on nearly half of all immigrant visa applications.
It said the “public charge” justification was “based on an unsupported and demonstrably false claim that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly rely on cash welfare”.
The suit added: “Many applicants for immigrant visas are not eligible for cash welfare and remain ineligible for years.
“[The state department] has invented a visa processing-regime that is not grounded in the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act) or its regulations – one that authorizes visa refusals based solely on nationality, without individualized assessment or statutory authority. The result is a blanket deprivation of the case by case adjudication Congress mandated.”
Joanna Cuevas Ingram, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center – one of the groups filing the suit – said the ban “upends the lives” of people who had overcome multiple obstacles to reunite their families.
“These policies exceed the government’s authority, violate the constitution, and strip families and working people of rights that the law squarely protects,” she said.
Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights – another group filing the lawsuit – called the order “base racism … clothed … in obviously pre-textual tropes about nonwhite families undeservedly taking benefits”.
“Congress and the constitution prohibit white supremacy as grounds for immigration policy,” he said.
Individual plaintiffs include Fernando Lizcano Losada, a doctor and endocrinologist from Colombia, whose application for an employment-based first preference visa (EB-1A) had been approved but is now suspended.
Others include US citizens who are separated from their families because their children or spouses have had their immigration visa applications suspended.
One of them, Cesar Andred Aguirre, who lives in Long Island, returned to Guatemala with his wife, Dania Mariela Escobar, for her visa interview. But the family was told that his wife would not be allowed to return.
Their younger daughter remains in Guatemala with her mother even though she has a medical condition, Turner syndrome, that needs treatment which is unavailable there.
