Trump administration sued over pause on immigrant visa processing
Source: Reuters
February 2, 2026 1:09 PM EST Updated 1 hour ago
Feb 2 (Reuters) - A group of civil rights organizations on Monday sued the State Department over its recent pause on the processing of immigrant visas for citizens from 75 countries, arguing the policy "eviscerate[d] decades of settled immigration law." The lawsuit, opens new tab filed in federal court in Manhattan asked a judge to issue a court order blocking the policy, which took effect on January 21.
The complaint asserted that the State Department's policy is "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 and are likely to become 'public charges.'" The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit was brought by the National Immigration Law Center and other groups on behalf of a wide range of plaintiffs, including U.S. citizens who say they have been separated from family members because of the policy. Another plaintiff is an endocrinologist from Colombia who was approved for an employment-based visa but cannot receive it because Colombia is one of the countries subject to the policy.
The pause has impacted applicants from Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, Balkan countries such as Bosnia and Albania, South Asian countries Pakistan and Bangladesh, and those from many nations in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-sued-over-pause-immigrant-visa-processing-2026-02-02/
Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.657161/gov.uscourts.nysd.657161.1.0.pdf