A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully blocked applicants from 39 countries from receiving decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship applications.
Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, found that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) violated both immigration law and administrative procedure by freezing benefit processing for nationals of African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries covered under the administration's travel restrictions.
The ruling came Friday in a lawsuit filed by immigrant service organizations and labor unions challenging policies adopted starting in November. The case targets a hold placed on all immigration applications from the 39 designated countries, with the Trump administration justifying the measures on security and vetting grounds.
McConnell, appointed by Barack Obama, said the freeze had placed applicants in a state of legal uncertainty through no fault of their own. "USCIS's hold on adjudications cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth," he wrote.
The judge emphasized that the affected immigrants had followed every legal requirement Congress established and that USCIS had adopted by regulation. Yet they remained frozen in place, awaiting decisions the agency refused to make.
"The rule of law has to apply to everyone equally and, as evident here, USCIS has neither 'followed the law' nor 'done things the right way'," McConnell stated. He added that the agency had "violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering, as well as the administrative laws that govern the agency's actions."
The New York Immigration Coalition praised the decision, with CEO Murad Awawdeh saying the Trump administration had acted "against statute and against the rule of law" by shutting down asylum access and preventing thousands from obtaining decisions based solely on their country of origin. He said the freeze had left families in legal limbo and cut people from life-saving protections.
The ruling arrived the same day the US Senate passed legislation funding the administration's immigration enforcement agenda.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment on the decision.
Author James Rodriguez: "This judge just demolished the legal cover for one of the broadest immigration freezes in years, and it happened without fanfare while Congress was busy authorizing more enforcement spending."
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