Chicago – February 03, 2026
A coalition of immigration advocacy groups, legal experts, and US citizens has filed a lawsuit against Marco Rubio and the US State Department, seeking to reverse a controversial order that paused immigrant visa approvals for citizens of 75 countries.
The legal action, submitted in a federal district court in New York, claims the suspension violates long-standing immigration practices and unfairly targets specific nationalities. According to the lawsuit, the decision “eviscerates” decades of established US immigration policy and is being implemented in a discriminatory manner.
The plaintiffs argue that the State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are unlawfully denying immigration opportunities to people from certain nations. The lawsuit strongly challenges the department’s justification, which suggests that citizens from these countries may be more likely to rely on welfare benefits. The coalition calls this reasoning “demonstrably false” and claims it is being used as an excuse to block immigration rights.
