A US federal judge has struck down a series of immigration policies adopted by the administration of US President Donald Trump, ruling that they unlawfully blocked people from 39 countries from receiving decisions on applications for asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship.
Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, invalidated policies introduced by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), saying they left people from dozens of African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries in “indeterminate legal limbo.”
McConnell said affected immigrants had followed legal procedures established by Congress and USCIS regulations but had remained “stuck waiting, for months on end, for benefit requests that USCIS refuses to adjudicate.”
The judge, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said the policies were adopted without statutory or regulatory authority and were influenced by “anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making.”
“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 ruling is a victory for a coalition of immigrant service organisations and labour unions that sued in March to challenge the policies. USCIS is part of the US Department of Homeland Security.
“This ruling reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from,” said Skye Perryman, head of the legal group Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment on the decision.
USCIS adopted the measures as part of a broader immigration crackdown launched after the November shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC. Prosecutors allege the attack was carried out by an Afghan immigrant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who has pleaded not guilty.
Following the incident, Trump pledged on social media to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover,” and expanded full or partial travel bans to 39 countries.
Countries subject to full travel bans included Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, Somalia, Venezuela and Syria. The administration defended the restrictions on security and vetting grounds.
McConnell said the policies placed a hold on immigration benefit applications from nationals of those countries and “placed the lives of countless individuals on hold solely by virtue of their countries of birth.”
“But 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,’” he wrote. “Indeed, the agency has violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering, as well as the administrative laws that govern the agency’s actions.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
