Trump admin hit with federal lawsuit over immigrant visa ban affecting 75 countries worldwide

By Fox News · Fox News

Immigrant rights organizations , legal advocacy groups and several U.S. citizens filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging the Trump administration’s ban on immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries. The group argues the policy unlawfully rewrites U.S. immigration law and discriminates on the basis of nationality and race and "eviscerated decades of settled immigration law." The lawsuit , seen by Fox News Digital, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. Department of State as defendants. TRUMP EXPANDS TRAVEL BAN TO HIT 5 COUNTRIES WITH SWEEPING NEW RESTRICTIONS, CITING SECURITY CONCERNS The lawsuit hopes to block a State Department policy that took effect Jan. 21 and which indefinitely pauses issuing immigrant visas, but not nonimmigrant visas, including tourist visas, for applicants from the listed countries. As previously reported by Fox News Digital, the pause is an effort to crack down on applicants deemed likely to become a public charge, with departments reassessing screening and vetting procedures . The group argues the new policy amounts to a "categorical nationality-based ban on legal immigration ," replacing the individualized, case-by-case adjudication required under federal law. The State Department has justified the pause by claiming applicants from the affected countries pose a heightened risk of becoming "public charges," or dependent on government assistance. The lawsuit says the State Department's policy is "based on an unsupported and demonstrably false claim that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly rely on cash welfare and are likely to become ‘public charges’." FIRST ON FOX: STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS REVOKED OVER 95,000 VISAS SO FAR According to the complaint, the ban affects roughly 40% to 45% of immigrant visa applicants worldwide and applies even to individuals whose visas h…