A federal judge on Friday struck down a slate of Trump administration immigration policies that had blocked the processing of applications for asylum seekers worldwide and immigrants from 39 countries, ordering U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to resume adjudicating cases that had been frozen for months.
The ruling vacated policies USCIS adopted starting in November 2025, weeks after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, shot two National Guard soldiers near the White House on Nov. 26, 2025. One of the soldiers, a woman, died from her wounds the next day. Lakanwal was later charged with murder.
President Trump responded to the shooting by announcing sweeping immigration restrictions, calling a processing pause a national security necessity. The administration halted all global asylum decisions and placed an indefinite hold on green card, work permit, and citizenship applications for people from the 39 countries covered by his travel bans. The list includes mostly African nations, along with Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria.
“In ruling on these motions, 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.’ This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that,” U.S. District Judge John McConnell wrote.
“But the rule of law has to apply to everyone equally and, as evident here, USCIS has neither ‘followed the law’ nor ‘done things the right way.’ Indeed, the agency has violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering.”
The ruling comes as the Trump immigration enforcement apparatus is moving on multiple fronts. On Thursday, Senate Republicans passed a $69.5 billion reconciliation bill funding deportation operations, detention capacity, and border security measures through 2029. That bill passed after an all-night vote-a-rama on Capitol Hill.
Friday’s court order represents a setback for that broader enforcement push, requiring agencies to resume processing applications for hundreds of thousands of applicants who had been left in legal limbo since late last year. The Justice Department had not announced by mid-afternoon whether it intended to appeal.
