A federal judge has ruled that the State Department cannot use President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban to deny visas to foreigners who apply for them.
The decision issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan applies only to 82 would-be immigrants and comes with a major caveat: It still allows immigration authorities to deny the foreign citizens entry to the U.S. by turning them away at a port of entry or instructing airline officials to refuse them boarding.
Sooknanan, a Biden appointee based in Washington, ruled that the federal law Trump invoked in June to limit entry to the U.S. by citizens of 19 countries does not give the State Department the power to deny visas.
Lawyers for the Trump administration asked Sooknanan to accept the “longstanding practice” of the State Department to refuse visas to people whose entry would be blocked by a presidential order.