Judge Strikes Down The Ban On Immigrants Who Might One Day Need Help, A Standard Few Citizens Could Meet Either

WASHINGTON—A federal judge on Friday struck down the administration’s policy of denying immigrant visas to citizens of 75 countries on the grounds that those people might, at some unspecified future point, need public assistance.

The policy, announced by the State Department in January, suspended visas for nationals of countries in every corner of the globe, on the stated theory that it would prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits. Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled it contrary to law and beyond the secretary’s authority, writing that a rule barring visas based on nationality runs directly against the statute Congress actually wrote.

The deeper problem is the standard itself. The possibility of one day needing help is not a foreign characteristic. It describes most people at some point, including the citizens the policy claimed to be protecting, none of whom can promise they will never lose a job, get sick, or grow old. Applied honestly, a border filter for future hardship would keep out nearly everyone, and let in only those willing to guarantee a future no one can guarantee.

The appeal of the rule was that it never had to be tested. A person turned away for a hardship not yet suffered has no way to prove it will never come, which is exactly what made the category so large and so convenient.

The 75 countries’ applicants now return to ordinary review, judged one file at a time rather than one continent at a time. The part the court could not locate in the law was the idea that a person can be refused for something that has not happened to them yet.