A US federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully barred applicants from 39 travel-ban countries from receiving decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship applications. The ruling, issued on Friday by Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, found that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had adopted a series of unlawful policies targeting people from African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern nations.
The decision came in a lawsuit filed in March by a coalition of immigrant service organisations and labour unions. The policies, implemented from November last year, placed a hold on processing immigration benefit applications from individuals in countries subject to full or partial travel bans imposed by President Donald Trump, which he justified on vetting and security grounds.
Judge McConnell, appointed by former President Barack Obama, wrote that the measures 'threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo'. He added: '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.'
The judge noted that the immigrants had adhered to legal processes but had been 'stuck waiting, for months on end, for benefit requests that USCIS refuses to adjudicate'. He concluded that the agency had violated immigration laws and administrative laws governing its actions. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) applauded the ruling. Murad Awawdeh, its president and CEO, said in a statement: 'Every person seeking safety, stability, and opportunity deserves a fair chance to have their case heard under the law. Today, a federal judge reaffirmed what we already knew: that the Trump administration violated the law, and did so with anti-immigrant malice.'
