A federal judge in Ohio handed the Trump administration another court loss on immigration this week, ordering U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to resume processing green cards, work permits and other immigration benefit applications that had been frozen for thousands of foreign nationals already living in the country.
U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley issued a preliminary injunction in a case brought by 25 foreign nationals whose pending applications had been indefinitely stalled under USCIS and Department of Homeland Security policies tied to Trump’s travel restrictions. The plaintiffs came from Burma, Canada, Iran, Nigeria, Syria, Tanzania and Venezuela, Newsweek reports.
The ruling does not decide whether any applicant is entitled to receive immigration benefits. It only orders USCIS to process the applications rather than leave them in indefinite suspension.
“These foreign nationals are not outside the country; they reside across the United States,” Marbley wrote. “Many of them have been in the United States for years, and already have received prior authorization to work here.”
Among the plaintiffs: a hospital pharmacist, a registered nurse, a cancer researcher receiving federal funding, college graduates with pending job offers in science and engineering, a university professor and young couples raising families. USCIS had been treating those applicants’ nationalities as a “significant and negative factor” in their cases, the judge found.
The administration had argued the freeze was a legitimate national security measure tied to heightened vetting requirements. Marbley rejected that framing, drawing a sharp legal line between restricting entry into the United States and halting adjudications for people already legally present.
“It is difficult to see how indefinitely pausing the processing of applications furthers any legitimate national security interest,” the judge wrote.
The ruling adds to a string of federal court decisions challenging the administration’s immigration freeze policies and is likely to face an appeal. The administration has pushed back aggressively against court rulings it views as obstructing lawful executive authority over immigration enforcement.
The case is the latest flashpoint in a months-long legal battle over USCIS processing policies, with immigration attorneys arguing the freezes have left clients in legal limbo despite following proper procedures and meeting eligibility requirements under existing federal law.
