Blow for Trump: US court overturns visa ban targeting over 30 African nations
This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.
- A federal judge in New York ruled that the Trump administration's immigrant visa suspension policy was unlawful
- Judge Jeannette Vargas found the policy conflicted with federal immigration law governing consular officers
- The ban, which took effect in January, targeted applicants from Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East
A United States federal judge has overturned the Trump administration's policy suspending immigrant visa issuance to nationals of 75 countries.
The judge ruled that the measure went beyond the legal powers granted to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Why did US court overturn decision?
According to Al Jazeera Judge Jeannette Vargas of the Southern District of New York delivered her ruling on Friday, describing the policy as "patently unlawful" and finding that it directly contradicted federal immigration law, which explicitly removed the secretary of state's authority over how consular officers adjudicate immigrant visa applications.
"The policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme," Vargas wrote in her judgment.
Vargas, appointed to the bench by former Democratic President Joe Biden, ruled in a case brought by immigrant rights organisations Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together, together with individual immigrant visa applicants and US citizens who had been sponsoring family members from the affected countries.
Which African countries were affected?
The suspension, which came into force in January 2026, covered a wide range of nations across multiple regions.
Among African countries, 12 faced a full ban on immigrant visa issuance: Burkina Faso, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Niger, the Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.
Several other countries faced partial restrictions under the policy, including, Angola, Benin, Burundi, Gabon, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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Beyond Africa, the suspension also applied to applicants from Latin American nations including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay; Balkan states such as Bosnia and Albania; South Asian countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh; and several nations across the Middle East and the Caribbean.
Why did Trump's administration effect the policy?
The Department of State had defended the policy by arguing that applicants from the designated countries posed a high risk of becoming dependent on public resources after arriving in the US.
It cited risks of recourse to "local, state and federal government resources."
The court's ruling rejected that justification as legally insufficient, finding that the executive branch could not override the statutory framework governing visa adjudications through a blanket nationality-based prohibition.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
Reporting originally appeared via TUKO. Read the full source for additional context.