New setback for Donald Trump. While the American president took a measure last January aimed at freezing visa procedures allowing permanent residence in the United States for 75 countries, an American federal judge declared, Friday August 21, its illegality.
In her decision, Jeannette Vargas of the New York court ruled that the measure was “contrary to the law” and that it had “been taken beyond the legal powers granted to Secretary of State” Marco Rubio.
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The measure applied since January 21 to immigrant visas, as opposed to non-immigrant visas which allow temporary entry into the United States, and concerned, among other things, applications from nationals of Somalia, Russia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria, Thailand and Yemen.
According to the court ruling, the State Department believed that immigrants from these countries presented “a high risk of relying on welfare benefits or becoming a burden on the public finances.”
Restriction of legal entry of foreign nationals
Consular officials were ordered to refuse immigration visas even when they determined that the applicant was unlikely to become a burden on the public purse and otherwise qualified for a visa, the ruling further said.
Friday’s ruling overturns any visa denials based solely on this policy.
Since his return to power, the American president has made the fight against illegal immigration a priority, massively expelling illegal immigrants, but he has also largely restricted, sometimes draconianly, the legal entry of foreign nationals.
Several of its flagship measures have, however, been overturned by the courts.
In early June, a federal judge on Monday canceled the $100,000 fee for work visas widely used in the technology field.
At the end of June, the Supreme Court overturned a decree taken by Donald Trump on the first day of his second term removing land rights for the children of illegal immigrants, with the aim of putting an end to what he considers to be an incentive to illegal immigration.
With AFP
