United States citizens, among them New Yorkers with relatives who in some cases are \u201cstuck\u201d in countries including Ghana, Jamaica, Guatemala and Ethiopia, have asked a federal judge in Manhattan to halt the Trump administration\u2019s pause on processing visas for nationals from 75 countries, contending the policy is based on racial stereotypes and hostility toward nonwhite immigrants.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit<\/a>, filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, seeks to block the administration\u2019s month-old ban on processing visas for people from the targeted countries, almost all of which have populations that are significantly nonwhite. The administration claims the action is warranted because citizens from the 75 nations are at high risk of becoming a \u201cpublic charge<\/a>,\u201d or otherwise reliant on public benefits.<\/p>\n The visa suspension, which the plaintiffs contend places nearly half of all visa applications on hold, including some already approved, is based on an \u201cunsupported and demonstrably false claim\u201d that nationals from those countries rely on public assistance, according to the complaint. The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge of the administration’s crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, a hallmark of President Donald Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n The lawsuit calls the \u201cpublic charge\u201d concerns “baseless\u201d and a pretext for limiting the immigration of nonwhites. It cites the president\u2019s \u201cwell-documented history\u201d of disparaging immigrants from Latin American, Caribbean, African and predominantly Muslim nations, all of which are well represented among those on the visa-ban list.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump has referred to such immigrants as coming from \u201cshithole countries,\u201d countries that are \u201cfilthy, dirty, disgusting,\u201d \u201ca disaster,\u201d and \u201chellholes,\u201d and stated that such immigrants are \u201ctrash\u201d and \u201cgarbage,\u201d are \u201cpoisoning the blood of our country,\u201d and are \u201cnon-compatible with Western Civilization,\u201d according to the complaint. At once, the president has expressed a preference for white immigrants from nations including Denmark, Norway and Sweden.<\/p>\n “The 75-country visa ban is yet another unlawful and racist policy from the Trump administration that disproportionately harms Africans seeking to immigrate to the United States,” Diana Konate, deputy executive director of policy and advocacy at the group African Communities Together, said in a statement.<\/p>\n