A federal judge on Friday struck down a series of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policies that had effectively blocked people from 39 countries from receiving decisions on asylum claims, work permits, green cards and naturalization applications. Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, found the agency acted without legal or regulatory authority and placed applicants from dozens of African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries in “indeterminate legal limbo.”
McConnell said the affected immigrants had followed the procedures set by Congress and USCIS regulations but were left “stuck waiting, for months on end, for benefit requests that USCIS refuses to adjudicate.” The judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, concluded the policies were shaped by “anti‑immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision‑making.”
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in March by a coalition of immigrant service organizations and labor unions, represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward. Skye Perryman, head of Democracy Forward, said the decision “reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from.”
USCIS-part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—implemented the contested measures as part of a wider immigration crackdown the administration launched after a November shooting in Washington, D.C., that injured two National Guard members. Prosecutors say the shooting was carried out by an Afghan immigrant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who has pleaded not guilty. In the aftermath, President Donald Trump posted that he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover,” and expanded full or partial travel restrictions to cover 39 nations.
The administration justified the travel bans and related processing holds on vetting and security grounds. McConnell rejected the agency’s approach to benefit adjudications, writing that USCIS’s hold on cases “cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth.”
The judge added that the rule of law must apply equally and found USCIS had neither “followed the law” nor “done things the right way,” saying the agency violated the immigration statutes Congress charged it with administering as well as administrative law governing agency action.
DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ruling restores the legal pathways for people from the affected countries to have their immigration benefit requests adjudicated, a decision advocates called a significant check on discriminatory agency policy.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-court-strikes-down-trump-policies-targeting-immigrants-from-39-countries-11598195#publisher=newsstand
Category:
Tags:
Publish Date: 2026-06-06 03:56:00
