This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
On August 21, 2026, in Catholic Legal Immigration Network v. Rubio (PDF), the federal district court for the Southern District of New York struck down the Trump administration’s suspension in January 2026 of immigrant visas for nationals of 75 countries. At the time, the court noted, the Department of State (DOS) explained that it deemed immigrants from those 75 countries to pose a high risk of utilizing welfare or becoming a public charge. The court noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio then sent a cable to all diplomatic and consular posts ordering consular officers to refuse immigrant visas to nationals of the 75 designated countries regardless of whether the consular officer had, following an individualized assessment, determined that the applicant was not likely to become a public charge and that the applicant was otherwise eligible for a visa. The court said that the “nationality-based immigrant visa suspension policy” thus had “the effect of categorically banning the issuance of immigrant visas to nationals of nearly 40% of the world’s countries.”
The court held that the policy is contrary to law and was issued in excess of Secretary Rubio’s statutory authority. The court therefore vacated the policy under the Administrative Procedure Act. The judgment also vacated any refusal of an immigrant visa that was based solely upon the policy and remanded those agency actions for further proceedings.
The court ordered the parties to submit a joint letter by September 11, 2026, setting forth their proposals on how to proceed with respect to the remaining claims in the case.
Affected countries include (PDF) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
