On Friday, June 5th 2026, a federal judge in Rhode Island, Judge McConnell, issued a decision officially ruling unlawful four recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policies.
Most importantly, this includes the USCIS adjudication hold. This hold had paused the processing of immigration applications—such as green cards, work permits (including OPT and STEM OPT), and asylum—for any applicants born in or holding citizenship from 39 designated "high-risk countries."
Key Details of the Decision:
-
What changed: The 39-country application freeze is no longer allowed. USCIS cannot use these specific rules to stop or delay these applications.
-
Reasoning behind this decision: Judge McConnell found that each of the four policies violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). He found them to be against the law, unfair, and poorly justified ("arbitrary and capricious").
As a result, USCIS must return to its normal process and will no longer be permitted to freeze applications based on these 39 specific country designations. It remains to be seen how USCIS will respond, and if the government will appeal this decision.
Regardless of the actions that the administration may take, it will take a considerable amount of time for USCIS to adjudicate the approximately one million cases that are back logged, so applicants may not see movement on thier case in the near future.