A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration is violating immigration law by refusing to process cases for people from the 39 countries on the president’s travel ban list.
For more than six months, immigrants from 39 countries the administration deems high-risk to national security have lived in a legal limbo as the federal government refuses to make a decision on their work permits, asylum, green cards and citizenship, leaving them unable to work and at risk of deportation.
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell Jr. declared the indefinite pause unlawful, writing that the agency overseeing legal migration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, didn’t have authority to unilaterally stop processing applications based on people’s country of origin.
“The Court is reminded of a line often repeated in discussions around immigration policy: If people wish to immigrate to the United States, they ought to ‘follow the law’ and ‘do things the right way,’” the Obama appointee wrote in a 135-page order. “This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that.”
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McConnell said USCIS “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 Trump administration was dismissive of the order.
“The Left has been running the same gambit with so called ‘animus’ claims since 2017,” Department of Homeland Security general counsel James Percival said as a statement. “It is sabotage dressed in legal clothing. It goes like this: (1) the admin is racist, (2) therefore a policy I don’t like is motivated by race, (3) therefore it is invalid. They have used it on virtually every Trump era Department of Homeland Security policy.”
Under director Joseph Edlow, USCIS issued its first policy aimed at restricting people from countries on the travel ban list Nov. 27, the day after an Afghan man granted asylum was arrested on suspicion of shooting of two National Guard members in D.C. Afghanistan is on the travel ban list, which mostly consists of countries in Africa and the Middle East.
In early December and January, USCIS further froze applications indefinitely and implemented a re-review of already approved benefits.
In his order, McConnell called out Trump and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s posts and comments following the shooting, including a Truth Social post from the president the day after the shooting asserting refugees are “the leading cause of social dysfunction in America.”
“It is impossible to ignore the backdrop against which the Challenged Policies were implemented,” the judge wrote. “Both the President and former Secretary’s statements came in the direct aftermath of the 2025 Washington, D.C. Shooting. Indeed, they seem to attribute the alleged act of a single individual of Afghan descent to the entire population of Afghanistan, as well as individuals from thirty-eight other countries.”
A coalition of nonprofit legal aid groups and labor unions working with immigrants from the banned countries sued USCIS on March 5.
“These unlawful policies caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylum seekers, and communities across the country who were left in limbo, unable to work, access protections, or move forward with their lives,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs. “We are pleased that the court recognized the devastating human consequences of these policies.”
USCIS loosened its freeze before Friday’s order, lifting the hold for medical physicians on April 30 and in January for athletes participating in the World Cup and Summer Olympics.
This article has been updated with a comment from DHS.
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