Key facts
- U.S. District Judge John McConnell ruled Trump administration policies unlawfully barred applicants from 39 countries.
- The policies prevented decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards, and citizenship.
- The judge found U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adopted unlawful policies.
- The ruling was in response to a lawsuit by immigrant service organizations and labor unions.
- The policies were justified by the administration on vetting and security grounds.
Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully barred applicants from 39 travel-ban countries from receiving decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards, and citizenship. McConnell stated that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had adopted a series of unlawful policies targeting people from these African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries. His ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in March by a coalition of immigrant service organizations and labor unions challenging policies adopted starting in November by USCIS, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. These measures placed a hold on processing immigration benefit applications from people in the 39 countries subject to Trump's travel bans, which he justified on vetting and security grounds. Judge McConnell, appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, stated that these policies "threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo," emphasizing that the agency violated immigration and administrative laws. He wrote that 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," and that the agency had violated the laws it was charged with administering.