{"id":115469,"date":"2026-01-28T19:52:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115469\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:52:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:52:25","slug":"75-house-dems-back-lawmakers-demand-to-reverse-visa-pause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115469\/","title":{"rendered":"75 House Dems back lawmakers’ demand to reverse visa pause"},"content":{"rendered":"

A coalition of 75 House Democrats is calling for the reversal of the State Department\u2019s pause on processing immigrant visas for 75 countries.<\/p>\n

The request was made in a letter the lawmakers sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Seventy-five House Democrats are calling for the reversal of the State Department\u2019s pause on processing immigrant visas for 75 countries
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The visa processing pause, which took effect last week, impacts nearly 40% of all countries
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A letter co-authored by New York Reps. Ritchie Torres and Yvette Clarke states that the “policy is backwards, antiquated and does significantly more harm than good”<\/p>\n

The letter, co-authored by New York Reps. Ritchie Torres and Yvette Clarke, states that the \u201cpolicy is backwards, antiquated and does significantly more harm than good.”<\/p>\n

The visa processing pause, which took effect last week<\/a>, impacts nearly 40% of all countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking with Spectrum News, Torres pointed to analysis that found the policy could cut legal immigration in half over the next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is telling about the motive of the Trump administration, right?\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

“The administration is not only intent on targeting undocumented immigrants. It\u2019s intent on dismantling the whole system of legal immigration, with a particular focus on legal immigrants of color,” he added. “Seventy-five countries that Donald Trump has chosen to target overwhelmingly come from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. That\u2019s not coincidence \u2014 that\u2019s a consequence of a deliberately discriminatory policy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter also makes several requests, including a cost-benefit analysis of the policy, to be submitted to Congress by Feb. 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has defended the visa pause, writing that immigrants from the countries are more apt to become \u201cpublic charges\u201d \u2014 meaning they are more likely to depend on government assistance.<\/p>\n

The letter states, \u201cPublic charge has long been an inadmissibility ground under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the agencies \u2014 Department of State and Department of Homeland Security \u2014 know how to conduct individualized assessments of applicants to determine whether they are likely to become a public charge. Why does the Administration now need a blanket pause on all applicants?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Torres told Spectrum News, \u201cIf the administration fails to justify the policy that it has adopted, then it\u2019s all but admitting that it\u2019s engaging in discrimination.”<\/p>\n

“By what logic do you allow white immigrants from South Africa, but you prohibit legal immigration from Africa, Latin America, the Carribean?” he added. “It feels like discrimination, and we\u2019re calling the administration out for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coalition of 75 House Democrats is calling for the reversal of the State Department\u2019s pause on processing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,25,9,24,55,54,49,12,56,87,45797,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-115469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-shannon-ryan","19":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}