This week’s federal policy roundup covers immigration, voting rights, and geography. A sweeping immigrant visa ban affecting 75 countries was struck down as new policies paused all visa interviews worldwide and the administration moved to revoke visas of asylum seekers. Meanwhile, new restrictions on federal mail ballot delivery set to take effect were blocked for a third time, and the president ordered the renaming of Lake Ontario.
State Department Pauses Immigrant Visa Appointments Worldwide
The State Department announced on Tuesday that it had temporarily paused or rescheduled immigrant visa appointments at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide to conduct mandatory staff training. The department stated the training prepares consular officers to evaluate whether applicants are likely to depend on government benefits and become a so-called “public charge.” It has not released the training materials, so it remains unclear whether the initiative will produce consistent individualized reviews or create additional barriers for applicants. Some applicants with scheduled interviews received cancellation notices without new appointment dates, and the State Department has not announced when regular appointments will resume.
This pause comes in advance of a policy set to take effect September 18 that redefines and expands the meaning of “public charge.” The new rule and related policies depart from traditional American immigration policies to one that essentially bars immigrants unable to demonstrate a particular level of wealth. And because these new policies explicitly removed clear standards, they reduce systematic protections against nationality-based decisions and other forms of discrimination.
75-Country Visa Ban Found Illegal Because of Nationality Discrimination
On August 21, a federal court in New York struck down the State Department’s suspension of immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries. It ruled that the policy violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s prohibition on discrimination based on nationality in the issuance of immigrant visas. The State Department previously said the suspension was needed because it believed applicants from those countries were more likely to rely on public assistance, also known as being a “public charge.” But the court found that the government could not impose that restriction based on nationality and that the policy unlawfully overrode consular officers’ authority to make individualized visa decisions. The court also ruled that people whose visas were denied solely because of the suspension must have those decisions reconsidered.
Yesterday, the plaintiffs in this case filed an emergency motion asking the court to order the enforcement of its August 21 ruling and not allow the administration to “circumvent” the court with the new global visa interview pause policy. The suspension has disproportionately affected African, Arab, Latino, Muslim, and other predominantly non-European communities. The suspension separated families and blocked employment-based immigration.
State Department Plans to Revoke Visas of Asylum Applicants
The State Department is preparing to revoke B-1 business and B-2 tourism visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to people who later applied for or are currently seeking asylum. The State Department is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify affected individuals using asylum application data from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Internal documents indicate up to 200,000 people could be affected, though the department has not confirmed that estimate. Revocations are expected on a rolling basis. While these visas can be valid up to ten years, they generally only permit holders to remain in the U.S. for up to six months. As a result, the practical impact of this policy is still unclear. It can take as long as six years to process asylum applications, so many if not most asylum seekers who enter on temporary visa are able to remain in the country because of their asylum-seeking status rather than visa.
More broadly, this is significant because it penalizes immigrants for exercising a Congressionally-mandated legal right to seek asylum, and comes amidst a broader push to deny the legal status of asylum seekers. Revocation would end an individual’s visa status but would not automatically terminate a pending asylum claim or result in immediate deportation. If their claims are ultimately denied, affected individuals would not have the revoked visa status to fall back on. Therefore, the policy could discourage people from applying for asylum out of fear of losing their underlying visa status. Formal guidance on criteria, timeline, and how to contest a revocation has not been released.
USPS Mail Ballot Restrictions Block Again
A federal court in Massachusetts has again temporarily blocked a new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) rule that could restrict delivery of mail-in ballots. The rule, finalized on August 21, to implement President Trump’s March executive order, requires states to submit voter and ballot-envelope information to a federal portal and could prevent USPS from delivering ballots that cannot be matched to federal records. The judge blocking the rule found that the challengers are likely to show that USPS lacks authority to impose these requirements and that the rule is an unconstitutional exercise of federal power over states. She also found that the administration had provided no evidence of widespread mail-voting fraud and that the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters outweighed its stated justification for the rule. Many states also cannot redesign and reprint millions of ballot envelopes, update election systems, and train election officials before the November 3 election. The Supreme Court lifted an earlier block on Monday because the states challenged the executive order before USPS issued its final rule. After the rule was finalized, the states filed a new challenge that led to yesterday’s new court ordered block.
Executive Order Seeks to Rename Lake Ontario “Lake America”
President Trump signed an executive order August 27 directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” amid escalating trade tensions with Canada resulting from new U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods. The president claims the authority to direct how the federal government refers to geographic features, and the order directs the Interior Department and Board on Geographic Names to update federal maps, databases, and other records. Trump took a similar step on January 20, 2025, when he ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed “Gulf of America.”
Lake Ontario’s name comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io and has been used since at least the 17th century. The Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe are among the indigenous nations connected to the lake and surrounding region, whose histories predate both the United States and Canada. The new order only changes the federal government’s official usage of the lake’s name, but its indigenous name remains in official use by Canada and other countries.