A US federal judge has struck down a sweeping Trump administration policy that had suspended immigration processing for citizens of 39 countries, ruling on Friday that the restrictions were unlawful, arbitrary, and driven by "anti-immigrant sentiment" rather than genuine national security concerns.
US District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr., in a sharply worded ruling, found that the policy — introduced in November 2025 following the shooting of two National Guard members over Thanksgiving weekend, allegedly by an Afghan national — had "categorically barred" immigrants from 39 countries, spanning Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, from receiving final decisions on asylum applications, work permits, green cards, and citizenship cases. The judge said the policy "threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo" and accused US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security responsible for processing immigration benefits, of claiming authority it does not legally possess. "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," McConnell wrote.
In unusually direct language, the judge dismissed the administration's national security justification, finding that USCIS had used "pretextual concerns of 'national security' that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making." In its legal defence, the government had argued that Congress grants the executive branch broad authority over immigration policy and discretion to confer or withdraw immigration benefits. The court rejected that argument, ruling the agency's actions "contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious."
The ruling was welcomed by immigration advocates and legal groups. Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs, said it "reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from." Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran leading the Afghan resettlement coalition #AfghanEvac, called it "a significant victory for the rule of law," describing people he had met that week in Texas who feared losing jobs due to stalled work permit renewals and families who had postponed major life decisions because their cases were unresolved.
The ruling applies specifically to USCIS, which processes applications for those already inside the United States, and does not affect asylum decisions made by immigration judges at the border. The decision is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration's broad immigration agenda, which has also included a separate State Department pause on visa processing from 75 countries and a historically low refugee admissions cap, measures that critics say have systematically dismantled legal immigration pathways alongside enforcement actions targeting undocumented individuals. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment on the ruling.