Judge lifts immigration freeze for Haitians, Cubans and Venezuelans
Key Points(5)
- A federal judge on Friday lifted a freeze on the immigration applications of more than a million Haitians, Cubans, and Venezuelans in a ruling that struck down cornerstones of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
- Chief Judge John J McConnell, Jr, of the U.S.
- District Court of Rhode Island, ruled that U.S.
- Citizenship and Immigration Services overstepped its authority, made decisions without providing the necessary explanations, and used national security as a pretext for making decisions based on anti-immigrant sentiments.
- The judge struck down several USCIS policies issued across three memos in late 2025 and early 2026.
A federal judge on Friday lifted a nationwide freeze on immigration applications affecting more than a million people from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and other countries, striking down key policies linked to the Trump administration’s immigration framework.
Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr., of the District of Rhode Island, ruled that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) exceeded its authority when it halted or delayed processing of asylum and immigration benefit applications and when it treated nationality as a negative factor in adjudications.
The court invalidated several USCIS policies issued in late 2025 and early 2026, including measures that paused asylum and withholding-of-removal applications across nationalities, froze immigration benefits for applicants from 39 countries, and ordered reviews of previously approved cases. The affected applications include work permits, green cards, family-based petitions, employment visas and naturalization requests.
McConnell also rejected a policy requiring immigration officers to weigh an applicant’s country of origin as a negative factor, as well as a directive to re-examine previously approved immigration benefits for certain nationalities. The court found the measures unlawful and said they left thousands of applicants in prolonged legal limbo without proper justification.
“The challenged policies placed the lives of countless individuals on hold — solely by virtue of their countries of birth,” the judge wrote, adding that many remained “without work, without legal status, and without any meaningful ability to plan for their futures” months after the freezes began.
The ruling is expected to bring relief to large immigrant communities, particularly in South Florida, where many Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans have had applications stalled for months.
