Federal judge reverses ‘patently unlawful’ White House visa rule after challenge from Catholic group

A federal judge has struck down a major Trump White House immigration policy, calling the directive “patently unlawful” and handing a win to a Catholic immigration group that brought suit against the administration.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas rebuked the Trump administration in the Aug. 21 ruling for what she said was a “direct” infringement on normal federal policy rules.

The U.S. government through the Department of State had issued a policy on Jan. 14 suspending new immigrant visas to dozens of countries. Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed consular offices to adhere to the policy and deny new visas to nationals of 75 countries.

In making the policy, the government alleged that immigrants from those countries were at risk of becoming “public charges.”

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network subsequently sued, arguing that the White House had in part “invented a visa processing regime” that violated U.S. statutory rules.

In her ruling, Vargas described the decision as “not a challenging case.”

Congress established “comprehensive procedures” related to immigrant visa approvals, she said; those rules rely on consular officers to determine whether or not immigrants should receive visas.

The government’s policy, meanwhile, “categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant,” a rule Vargas said is “a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme.”

Vargas said her order would vacate the government’s policy and “set aside and vacate any refusal of an immigrant visa that was based solely upon” that policy.

In a press release after the ruling, the Catholic legal group said it welcomed the decision, describing the government’s rule as one that “disrupted lawful immigration pathways and separated families around the world.”

Anna Gallagher, the group’s executive director, said the case “at its heart … is about keeping families together.”

“The suspension of lawful visa issuance across 75 countries separated spouses, parents and children who were simply following the legal immigration process,” Gallagher said, arguing that the ruling “allow[s] families to once again move forward toward reunification.”

The court’s ruling is the second high-profile loss this summer for the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump had exceeded his authority when he signed an executive order to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents in the country illegally.

In June, however, the high court ruled in favor of several other restrictive immigration policies from the Trump administration, including one that allowed the government to end temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian migrants. Those policies have received pushback and criticism from the U.S. bishops.