US judge overturns Trump’s crackdown on legal immigrants from 39 nations

A U.S. federal judge has overturned a series of immigration restrictions implemented by the Trump administration, which targeted legal immigrants from 39 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries. District Judge John McConnell ruled on Friday that the measures, which affected asylum, work permit, green card, and citizenship applications, were unlawful.

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The restrictive immigration policies enacted by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo.”

The restrictions were put in place following a shooting incident in November 2025, where two members of the National Guard were killed by an Afghan immigrant in Washington. The policies, enacted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), were found by the judge to have thrown the lives of countless immigrants into "indeterminate legal limbo."

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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.

Judge McConnell, appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, stated that the hold on adjudications was not due to any wrongdoing by the individuals but rather "solely by the happenstance of their birth." He noted that many affected individuals remained without work, legal status, or the ability to plan their futures for over six months after the policy's imposition.

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Over six months later, many of those individuals remain without work, without legal status, and without any meaningful ability to plan for their futures.

The judge further asserted that USCIS used "pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments." While acknowledging it was not his role to judge the policy's wisdom, he concluded that the actions "comport with the law" and were "arbitrary and capricious." The ruling contrasts with Trump's campaign pledges to deport millions of undocumented migrants and his subsequent statement to "permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries" after the National Guard shooting. The Afghan man charged in the shooting had entered the U.S. as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

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USCIS, in imposing the restrictions, was using “pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments.”