State Department blasts back at 'rogue judge' who overturned aggressive visa crackdown

FIRST ON FOX: The State Department tore into the "rogue judge" who overturned its freeze on immigrant visas from 75 countries after she blasted the administration’s legal rationale as "an exercise in Orwellian logic.""American taxpayer-funded public benefits belong to Americans," State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told Fox News Digital."President Trump has made clear that immigrants must be financially self-sufficient to protect these public benefits for American citizens.""This rogue judge's misguided opinion wrongfully undermines the longstanding legal authority of the Secretary of State.

We will keep fighting for commonsense visa policies that put America First."U.S.District Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled Friday that the State Department could not force consular officers to deny immigrant visas to otherwise eligible applicants solely because they are nationals of one of the 75 countries covered by the policy.BIDEN JUDGE OVERRULED ON KEY TRUMP IMMIGRATION POLICYU.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference at the Secretaria Of Foreign Affairs Building in Mexico City on Sept.03, 2025.

(Hector Vivas/Getty Images)Vargas, a Biden appointee who joined the Southern District of New York bench in November 2024, previously spent more than two decades as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan.She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Yale, then clerked for future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Circuit.Earlier this year, Vargas temporarily blocked Department of Government Efficiency personnel from accessing sensitive Treasury payment systems, citing privacy and cybersecurity concerns.

But she later narrowed that order and allowed vetted and trained DOGE employees to access the systems.Vargas found that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s directive required officers to deny visas even after determining an applicant was not barred under any existing provision of immigration law.She vacat...