Judge ends Trump freeze on immigration applications of Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans

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 four USCIS policies in total: a freeze on all applications for asylum and withholdings of removals across all nationalities; a hold on pending immigration applications from 39 countries, including Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela; a mandate to review all approved immigration applications during the Biden era from the 39 countries, and a requirement that USCIS officials weigh certain nationalities to be a negative factor when deciding applications.

“USCIS’s hold on adjudications cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth,” wrote the judge, appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama. “In legal terms that means USCIS’s actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

In a statement to the Miami Herald, James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, said that “The Left has been running the same gambit with so called ‘animus’ claims since 2017. It is sabotage dressed in legal clothing. It goes like this: (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.”

Meanwhile, advocates, experts, and lawyers celebrated the decision on Friday.

READ MORE: Million-plus immigration-benefits applications from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela frozen

“This is wonderful news for many people who have been stuck in limbo for many months,” Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programs and strategy at the American Immigration Council, told the Herald. “These policy changes are a clear set examples of the administration’s approach to immigration generally and their unending desire to do everything they can to whittle the system down.”

Loweree called it a “sand in the gears approach.”

The development will bring relief to many residents of South Florida, where many Cubans, Haitian and Venezuelans have had their applications frozen for months. A Cato Institute report from March estimated that there were more than 1.2 million frozen applications from these three nationalities, making up the bulk of the 2 million frozen total applications.

In the ruling, the judge wrote that the Trump administration often said in court documents that those wishing to come to the U.S. should follow the law.

“This case serves as a perfect example of doing just that…they have, for example, filed the paperwork, paid the required filing fees, submitted to the requested biometrics collections, and attended the necessary in person interviews,” wrote McConnell, adding that they were still “stuck waiting.”

The Trump administration could still request a stay on the order from an appeals court or ask the Supreme Court to intervene in an emergency request, as it has done in federal immigration cases where judges have ruled against them.

And in a development that alarmed legal experts, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin could not guarantee to Congress this week that DHS would follow court orders, and would evaluate whether they were politically motivated. Loweree called the remarks “incredibly concerning.”

Friday’s federal court decision stems from a lawsuit filed by nonprofits and labor unions, including Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, and Services Employees International Union. The lawsuit was filed against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and its top leadership.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.