State Department Unjustifiably Invokes “Public Charge” to Freeze Immigrant Visa Processing for 75 Countries

The Department of State’s directive to pause the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, representing an extraordinary reduction in lawful immigration to the U.S., takes effect today. Nationals from these countries, which include Somalia, Russia, Thailand, Brazil, Guatemala, and Afghanistan, among many others, received nearly half of all immigrant visas in fiscal year 2024.

Consistent with its increasingly racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric, the Trump Administration claims that nationals from the 75 targeted countries are at “high risk” of becoming a public charge, without providing any evidence to justify this assertion. A recent analysis of census data shows that the majority of people who are immigrants do not use public benefits. U.S. federal laws have long barred most immigrant visa recipients from accessing any means tested public benefits for the first five years of residency, and the harmful Republican megabill takes away access from even more people with lawful immigration statuses.

The pause applies only to those seeking to immigrate permanently to the U.S. from the 75 countries, including immediate family members of U.S. citizens; it does not apply to nonimmigrant visas, which are issued to people seeking to temporarily enter the U.S. for purposes such as business, tourism, study, or temporary work.

The visa freeze comes amid sweeping efforts by the Trump Administration to curtail lawful immigration. These include a travel ban and indefinite hold placed on immigration applications from nationals of 39 countries, and a move to rescind the Biden-era public charge rule so that immigration officers have vast discretion to deny applications for lawful permanent resident status based on their belief that someone may receive assistance at some point in the future. Key questions like how such determinations should be made, what evidence should be reviewed, and what kinds of future benefit receipts should be considered are left entirely unaddressed in the proposed Trump rule.

Such discretion and lack of clarity around the basics of the policy would introduce significant risk of inconsistent and biased determinations, including bias based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex or religion — and would create an immigration system that only recognizes people with significant wealth as potential contributors to the United States. This belies the incredible accomplishments of people who have come to the U.S. for hundreds of years and the accomplishments of their descendants.

These actions, alongside the Administration’s extreme and aggressive immigration enforcement dragnet — which includes widespread civil rights abuses, from the brutal invasion of Minneapolis and other U.S. cities by federal agents to the use of fatal force by ICE officers — have created enormous fear and confusion for immigrants and their families. This will undoubtedly result in people forgoing health coverage and food assistance they need and qualify for — including families who forgo help for children, many of whom are U.S. citizens.