WASHINGTON: A US federal court struck down on Friday a major set of the Trump administration’s immigration policies that had paused or severely slowed the processing of green cards, asylum claims, work permits, and citizenship applications for nationals from 39 countries.

Chief judge John J. McConnell Jr of the district court in Rhode Island ruled that the measures unlawfully trapped large numbers of immigrants in prolonged legal uncertainty.

The 135-page ruling determined that the policies exceeded executive authority and violated federal administrative law and that the government’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious”, based on “pretextual concerns of national security”.

In unusually strong language, the judge wrote that the policy had placed immigrants in the United States in “indeterminate legal limbo”.

He further stated that the immigration agency had acted unlawfully in multiple ways.

In enacting its latest immigration policies, the US immigration agency 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,” the judge wrote.

The judge noted that the USCIS “justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making”.

He concluded that this meant USCIS actions were “contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious”.

The ruling restores processing of immigration applications that had been frozen, including asylum requests, green card petitions, work permits, and naturalization applications for affected applicants.

Background to policy

The legal challenge centered on a series of immigration measures introduced after a deadly attack involving National Guard personnel in Washington late last year.

In response, the Trump administration expanded restrictions on immigration screening and ordered heightened national security reviews for applicants from countries associated with a revised travel-ban list.

Following that incident, immigration authorities introduced broad pauses and restrictions affecting nationals from 39 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. These measures not only affected new arrivals but also immigrants already living in the United States who were awaiting decisions on pending applications.

Under the policy, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) was instructed to suspend or delay final decisions on multiple categories of applications. This included asylum cases, employment authorisation, green cards, and citizenship applications.

In some cases, asylum processing was partially resumed for certain nationalities, but remained blocked for those on the designated list.

For months, applicants who had already completed required steps — filing paperwork, paying fees, submitting biometrics, and attending interviews — were left waiting indefinitely without final decisions.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2026