President Donald Trump’s administration is facing a lawsuit over its blanket ban on immigrant visas for nationals of 75 nations, which Washington described as leeches exploiting the generosity of the American people.

A coalition of pro-immigration groups sued the U.S. State Department in a federal district court in Manhattan, arguing that the ban was unlawful because many immigrants were not qualified to access U.S. social welfare programmes.

“Many applicants for immigrant visas are not eligible for cash welfare and remain ineligible for years,” stated the suit filed at a district court in Manhattan on Monday.

According to the lawsuit, the ban was “based on an unsupported and demonstrably false claim that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly rely on cash welfare”.

Countries affected include Nigeria, Haiti, Ghana, Brazil, Cuba and 70 others in the suit that also named secretary of state Marco Rubio as a defendant. Mr Rubio is the son of immigrant parents who relocated to the U.S. from Cuba in 1956.

“This administration is trying to shut down lawful immigration from nearly half the countries in the world without legal authority or justification,” said Anna Gallagher, director of Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc and lead plaintiff.

Another plaintiff, Joanna Cuevas Ingram, for the National Immigration Law Centre, said the ban was a violation of existing laws.

“These policies exceed the government’s authority, violate the constitution, and strip families and working people of rights that the law squarely protects,” Ms Cuevas said.

The State Department in January paused immigrant visa processing from 75 countries “whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates”.

“The freeze will remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people,” it said.

But the coalition of groups said the blanket ban was hurting families, especially those who had spouses and children from affected countries.

The case filed on Monday is referenced as Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. v. Rubio, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:26-cv-00858.