A U.S. federal judge has struck down a series of immigration policies introduced under President Donald Trump that prevented applicants from 39 countries from receiving decisions on asylum claims, work permits, green cards, and citizenship applications.
Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island ruled that the measures adopted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) were unlawful and left thousands of immigrants from African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries trapped in prolonged uncertainty. According to the court, many applicants had complied with all legal requirements but remained without decisions on their cases for months.
In his ruling, McConnell said USCIS lacked the statutory and regulatory authority to impose the restrictions and criticized the agency for allowing nationality to determine whether applications would be processed. He argued that the policies effectively placed immigrants in “indeterminate legal limbo” based solely on their countries of birth.
The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups and labor unions, which challenged the policies after they were introduced as part of a broader immigration crackdown. The measures followed a 2025 shooting involving an Afghan immigrant and were tied to expanded travel restrictions affecting 39 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, Somalia, Venezuela, and Syria. The Trump administration had defended the actions as necessary for security and vetting purposes.
Welcoming the decision, Democracy Forward, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs, said the ruling reaffirmed that the federal government cannot block lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against individuals based on their national origin.
The Department of Homeland Security had not issued an immediate response to the ruling. However, the decision represents a significant legal setback for the administration’s immigration agenda and could allow thousands of pending immigration benefit applications to move forward.
McConnell concluded that USCIS had failed to follow immigration and administrative laws, emphasizing that legal protections must be applied equally regardless of an applicant’s country of origin.
