{"id":445372,"date":"2026-02-02T21:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445372\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:58:07","slug":"state-department-and-marco-rubio-sued-over-order-denying-visas-to-75-countries-us-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/445372\/","title":{"rendered":"State department and Marco Rubio sued over order denying visas to 75 countries | US immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"

A coalition of immigration groups, lawyers and US citizens is suing Marco Rubio<\/a> and the state department to overturn an order that suspended immigrant visa approvals to citizens of 75 countries, alleging the move \u201ceviscerates\u201d decades of settled policy and is blatantly discriminatory.<\/p>\n

The suit<\/a>, filed in a US district court in New York, accuses the department and Rubio, the secretary of state, of denying immigration rights to the nationals of certain countries on \u201cthe demonstrably false claim\u201d that they are likely to seek welfare payments.<\/p>\n

The state department suspended immigrant visa approvals to nationals of 75 countries last month in a social media post<\/a> couched in notably undiplomatic language.<\/p>\n

It said it would \u201cpause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates. The freeze will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pause impacts dozens of countries \u2013 including Somalia, Haiti, Iran, and Eritrea \u2013 whose immigrants often become public charges on the United States upon arrival,\u201d the post continued. \u201cWe are working to ensure the generosity of the American people will no longer be abused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other countries included was Cuba, from which Rubio\u2019s parents arrived as undocumented immigrants in 1956.<\/p>\n

An accompanying statement<\/a> on the department\u2019s website said: \u201cPresident Trump has made clear that immigrants must be financially self-sufficient and not be a financial burden to Americans. The Department of State is undergoing a full review of all policies, regulations, and guidance to ensure that immigrants from these high-risk countries do not utilize welfare in the United States or become a public charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The order coincided with the deployment of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents to Minnesota, where the Trump administration alleges widespread welfare fraud has occurred and has accused members of the local Somalian community as being key perpetrators.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims the suspension amounted to a bar on nearly half of all immigrant visa applications.<\/p>\n

It said the \u201cpublic charge\u201d justification was \u201cbased on an unsupported and demonstrably false claim that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly rely on cash welfare\u201d.<\/p>\n

The suit added: \u201cMany applicants for immigrant visas are not eligible for cash welfare and remain ineligible for years.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The state department] has invented a visa processing-regime that is not grounded in the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act) or its regulations \u2013 one that authorizes visa refusals based solely on nationality, without individualized assessment or statutory authority. The result is a blanket deprivation of the case by case adjudication Congress mandated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanna Cuevas Ingram, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center \u2013 one of the groups filing the suit \u2013 said<\/a> the ban \u201cupends the lives\u201d of people who had overcome multiple obstacles to reunite their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese policies exceed the government\u2019s authority, violate the constitution, and strip families and working people of rights that the law squarely protects,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights \u2013 another group filing the lawsuit \u2013 called the order \u201cbase racism \u2026 clothed \u2026 in obviously pre-textual tropes about nonwhite families undeservedly taking benefits\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress and the constitution prohibit white supremacy as grounds for immigration policy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Individual plaintiffs include Fernando Lizcano Losada, a doctor and endocrinologist from Colombia, whose application for an employment-based first preference visa (EB-1A) had been approved but is now suspended.<\/p>\n

Others include US citizens who are separated from their families because their children or spouses have had their immigration visa applications suspended.<\/p>\n

One of them, Cesar Andred Aguirre, who lives in Long Island, returned to Guatemala with his wife, Dania Mariela Escobar, for her visa interview. But the family was told that his wife would not be allowed to return.<\/p>\n

Their younger daughter remains in Guatemala with her mother even though she has a medical condition, Turner syndrome, that needs treatment which is unavailable there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coalition of immigration groups, lawyers and US citizens is suing Marco Rubio and the state department to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-445372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}