Berk Kutay Gokmen
05 June 2026•Update: 05 June 2026
A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday blocked several immigration policies introduced by the Trump administration that had prevented many immigrants in the US from obtaining asylum, green cards and other legal immigration benefits.
In a 135-page ruling, Chief Judge John McConnell of the US District Court in Rhode Island concluded that the broad restrictions on legal immigration benefits were “contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”
One of the policies struck down by McConnell suspended immigration applications from citizens of 39 countries included in Trump's travel ban, citing national security concerns after an Afghan asylum recipient was charged with shooting two National Guard members in Washington, DC.
The measures, introduced late last year, largely prevented the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from issuing green cards, work permits, citizenship and other benefits to nationals of the affected countries, most of them in Africa and Asia.
The policies also initially froze all USCIS asylum cases regardless of nationality. In March, USCIS resumed processing most asylum applications but continued the pause for citizens of the 39 countries covered by the travel ban.
In his ruling, McConnell noted that the affected immigrants “ filed the appropriate paperwork, paid the required filing fees, submitted to the requested biometrics collections, and attended the necessary in-person interviews.”
"In enacting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of 'national security' that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making," McConnell said.
