A federal court in the United States has overturned the suspension of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries, including Albania. Federal Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy announced by the State Department in January was clearly unlawful and contradicted federal immigration law, which explicitly removed the secretary of state’s authority over the processing of immigrant visas from consular officials.
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“The policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based on the applicant’s nationality, represents a direct repudiation of this statutory scheme,” she wrote.
The State Department’s suspension, which also took effect in January, affected applicants from Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay.
Reuters reports that it also affected Balkan countries such as Bosnia and Albania, as well as the South Asian countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The State Department said applicants from those countries were at high risk of becoming a public burden and drawing on local, state and federal government resources in the United States.
President Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive crackdown on immigration that he says is aimed at improving domestic security. Rights groups say the crackdown has violated freedom of speech and due process rights and created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling.
