A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday struck down a slate of immigration policies enacted by the Trump administration, writing that the measures had “placed the lives of countless individuals on hold — solely by virtue of their countries of birth.”
In a searing 135-page opinion, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. wrote that actions to lock eligible asylum seekers out of the immigration system and deny others temporary work permits had made it functionally impossible for a broad swath of people to remain in the country. He said the measures were improperly fueled by “anti-immigration sentiments” and contrary to immigration laws.
The policies, enacted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, included a global hold on asylum applications filed with the agency. U.S.C.I.S. also paused decisions on immigration applications filed by people from the 39 countries, largely in Africa and the Middle East, that are subject to the president’s travel ban, halting their ability to obtain green cards and other benefits.
The sweeping measures also touched lawful permanent residents who have lived in the country legally for years but have been effectively unable to be approved for citizenship because decisions on naturalization applications had ground to a halt.
The decision was a major blow to the Trump administration in its growing campaign to not only cut off illegal immigration but tighten legal immigration and pressure noncitizens, including many with legal status, to leave the United States. It effectively forces the government to return to the normal adjudication process and begin resolving more than a million backlogged applications.
James Percival, the general counsel for the Homeland Security Department, the parent agency of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, blamed the decision on “the left” for “sabotage dressed in legal clothing.”
“It goes like this,” he said in an emailed statement. “(1) the admin is racist, (2) therefore a policy I don’t like is motivated by race, (3) therefore it is invalid. They have used it on virtually every Trump-era Department of Homeland Security policy.”
He did not say how the administration planned to respond. But it has generally reacted aggressively to setbacks on its immigration policy in the courts, quickly appealing and sometimes enacting nearly identical substitute measures, prolonging litigation.
The policies at issue were announced in November shortly after the authorities said an Afghan national had shot two National Guard members in Washington. The man, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has pleaded not guilty.
The freeze resulted in many immigrants inside the United States waiting indefinitely for decisions on their applications, disrupting their ability to legally work and leaving them to question whether they could remain in the country.
“Over six months later, many of those individuals remain without work, without legal status and without any meaningful ability to plan for their futures,” Judge McConnell wrote.
Judge McConnell, an Obama appointee, wrote that the various holds violated the immigration laws governing the responsibilities of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and that the agency had routinely applied the law unequally under the policies. He noted in particular strident claims President Trump made last year after the shooting in Washington, blaming immigrants for a range of social problems, including housing shortages and “urban decay.”
The judge wrote that the burden of the changes fell hardest on people who had followed all the procedures demanded of them, rather than immigrants who entered the country illegally, whom the Trump administration routinely vilifies.
“The court is reminded of a line often repeated in discussions around immigration policy: If people wish to immigrate to the United States, they ought to ‘follow the law’ and ‘do things the right way,’” he wrote. “This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that.”
Democracy Forward, a legal nonprofit that helped represent the immigration groups and unions behind the lawsuit, celebrated the ruling.
“This ruling reaffirms a basic principle: The federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from,” said Skye Perryman, the organization’s president. “These unlawful policies caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylum seekers and communities across the country.”
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island, was brought by a constellation of immigration aid groups and labor unions, including the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island and American Gateways, as well as the Service Employees International Union and the United Auto Workers.
The groups argued that thousands of their clients who depended on institutional support to navigate the immigration system had seen their applications for a range of services indefinitely stalled. They argued that their clients had routinely completed the requisite paperwork, paid fees, submitted to biometric testing and attended immigration interviews, only for their cases to grind to a halt.
Judge McConnell’s order on Friday also struck down a “re-review” policy under which immigrants from countries included on Mr. Trump’s travel ban list who entered the country after 2021 and had already been approved for benefits were subject to re-evaluation. He rejected the government’s claims that interviewing those individuals again or weighing “country-specific facts and circumstances” against them in the process was justified on national security grounds.
“The rule of law has to apply to everyone equally,” he wrote, “and, as evident here, U.S.C.I.S. has neither ‘followed the law’ nor ‘done things the right way.’”
In other cases, judges have found that the Trump administration illegally withheld visas from people coming from countries on the president’s travel ban list. Mr. Trump had described the travel ban as “a permanent pause on Third World migration” in December.
Separate lawsuits are also pending in New York and the District of Columbia challenging the Trump administration’s suspension of visas for people from 75 countries.
