Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. calls the Trump administration’s actions “illegal, arbitrary, and capricious.”
A federal judge in Rhode Island declared on Friday that the policies promoted by the Donald Trump administration, which six months ago suspended immigration processes and asylum applications for citizens of 39 countries, including Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti, were “illegal.”
In a scathing ruling of more than 100 pages, Justice John McConnell Jr. states that these measures, adopted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), left “countless immigrants residing in the United States in an indefinite legal limbo” and concludes that they were “contrary to law, arbitrary, and capricious.”
According to McConnell, USCIS assumed powers it does not possess. The national security reasons the agency cited for its decisions, the judge says, are pretexts intended to mask xenophobic sentiments, something the agency is prohibited from engaging in.
The measure blocked not only the processing of applications for asylum, permanent residency and US citizenship, but also work permits, which are essential to remain in the country legally.
The agency violated both the immigration laws it is responsible for administering and the administrative rules that govern its actions.
The judge maintains that the suspension imposed by USCIS was not in response to any misconduct on the part of those affected, but solely to the circumstance of their place of birth. He also determined that the agency violated both the immigration laws it is responsible for administering and the administrative regulations governing its actions.
These policies were implemented after an Afghan national opened fire on members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., in November 2025, killing one officer and wounding another. The ruling also includes statements by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, endorsed by Trump, in which she proposed “an immigration ban on every damn country that has flooded our nation with murderers, leeches, and welfare addicts,” in addition to railing against so-called “foreign invaders.”
In addition to Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica were also included from the American continent, although most of the countries affected by these measures were African.
The court decision has been celebrated by Democracy Forward, one of the organizations that represented various immigrant and worker groups, including the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
“This ruling reaffirms a fundamental principle: the federal government cannot suspend legal immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on their country of origin,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward.
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