This morning, the Federal District Court in Rhode Island vacated several Policy Memoranda issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services over the past 6 months which (i) placed a hold on the adjudication of benefit applications filed by or on behalf of the nationals of 39 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, (ii) placed a hold on all applications for political asylum and withholding of removal, regardless of the applicant’s country of origin, (iii) required a re-review of already approved applications from the so-called “Travel Ban Countries” who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021 and (iv) required that USCIS personnel consider “country-specific facts and circumstances” as significant negative factors when deciding whether to grant benefit applications by or on behalf of applicants from the Travel Ban Countries.
Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. concluded that each of these policies both violates the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”), which governs how Federal agencies make and enforce regulations and policy guidance, and is arbitrary and capricious in violation of Federal law.
This ruling is significant and it applies nationally. If it stands, the decision requires that the USCIS begin to process and adjudicate a large number of benefit applications including applications for political asylum and withholding of removal filed on behalf of foreign nationals from the impacted countries. We expect that USCIS will appeal this decision, and we also note that the US Supreme Court has significantly narrowed the circumstances under which the decision of a single Federal District Court judge can have nationwide effect.
We will keep you updated as there are further developments on this decision.
Immigration at Work 