Judge blocks Trump policies that halted legal immigration cases for many immigrants

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday blocked a series of Trump administration measures that have prevented federal officials from granting asylum, green cards and other legal immigration benefits to many immigrants in the U.S.

In a 135-page opinion, Chief Judge John McConnell of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island found the sweeping limits on legal immigration benefits to be arbitrary and capricious, contrary to federal law.

One of the policies McConnell invalidated had halted all legal immigration applications filed by citizens of 39 countries listed on President Trump’s so-called “travel ban” list, which restricts travel from countries whose nationals the administration says are too difficult to properly screen.

The Trump administration adopted the measures late last year on national security grounds, following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. An Afghan man who was brought to the U.S. in 2021 and granted asylum in 2025 has been charged with the shooting.

For months, the pause has largely banned officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from giving out green cards, work permits, American citizenship and other benefits to citizens of the affected countries, many of them in Africa and Asia.

Initially, the policies also included a complete pause on the hundreds of thousands of asylum cases overseen by USCIS, regardless of the applicant’s nationality. In March, USCIS partially lifted the asylum pause, resuming the processing of applications filed by most nationalities, except for citizens of the 39 nations on the “travel ban” list.

In his order, McConnell noted the immigrants affected by the policies he found unlawful “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.

CBS News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment on Friday’s court order.