Judge Orders Government To Consider Immigrants Individually
A federal judge unleashed individualized consideration across the United States on Friday, striking down the Trump administration’s policy suspending immigrant visas for nationals of 75 countries and ordering officials to examine applicants as separate human beings. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas disrupted a streamlined system under which consular officers could determine a person’s finances, intentions and moral character by locating a country on a list.
The administration imposed the policy in January to protect federal employees from paperwork, evidence and other hazards associated with administering immigration law. Rather than assess whether an applicant might become a “public charge,” officers were permitted to reject entire nationalities at once, a method praised for achieving the same answer 75 times without allowing facts to interfere. Vargas ruled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio exceeded his authority and that immigration law prohibits nationality-based discrimination in issuing immigrant visas. She also ordered applications rejected solely under the policy to receive case-by-case review, forcing the government to distinguish between people who were born in the same place.
President Donald Trump condemned the decision’s radical premise that eligibility should depend on an applicant’s eligibility. “Nobody knew judges could make America look at people one at a time,” Trump said. “We had 75 countries, a beautiful number, and now they want evidence, documents and individual circumstances. That is very personal and very unfair to lists.” Rubio warned that the ruling could expose consular officers to sustained contact with legally relevant information, including employment records, family circumstances and proof that two citizens of one nation may not share a single bank account, résumé or plan for overthrowing the United States.
The administration is expected to appeal, arguing that Congress cannot use immigration statutes to obstruct the executive branch’s constitutional authority to replace screening with geography. Officials said contingency plans include enlarging the list, printing it in bold and explaining that collective suspicion becomes individualized judgment when processed through a government database. Until the ruling is overturned, visa officers must endure the administrative chaos of reviewing visa applications, and nationality remains the most accurate available measurement of a stranger’s future income.
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