RAICES Bulletin: RAICES Helps Secure Court Win Ending Discriminatory USCIS Freeze
By RAICES Public Affairs Director Javier Hidalgo, Esq.
TL;DR A federal court vacated four unlawful policies that had indefinitely frozen immigration benefits for individuals from 39 nations. Serving as co-counsel, RAICES helped secure this major victory, which restores standard legal pathways and protects millions of immigrants from agency discrimination.
WHAT TO KNOW
Issue: A coalition of organizations challenged four restrictive USCIS immigration policies. These policies had indefinitely frozen benefits—including asylum, work permits, green cards, and citizenship—for individuals from 39 nations based solely on their country of birth. RAICES served as co-counsel in this case. On June 5, 2026, Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs, declaring all four policies unlawful and vacating them.
Rationale: The court found that USCIS had neither “followed the law” nor “done things the right way,” and instead violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) with arbitrary and capricious policies. The court also determined that the government's "national security" defense—predicated on two isolated incidents involving Afghan nationals—was a pretext for unlawful discrimination. Finally, the court rejected the government's jurisdictional defenses, ruling that federal courts retain authority.
RAICES Impact: RAICES provides legal aid to applicants for benefits and relief from USCIS. Those pathways frozen by these policies should now once again be available. Legal staff should identify clients affected who can now obtain decisions or pursue previously blocked relief. While this decision stands, legal service providers should look for a return to standard casework pipelines, enabling clients to reliably plan for employment, education, family unity, and naturalization. Still, DHS is likely to appeal in order to leverage a potentially favorable Supreme Court.
Community Impact: The ruling delivers massive relief to millions of immigrants who remained in legal limbo despite completing all lawful requirements and paying necessary fees. Overturning these policies protects immigrant workers from losing employment authorization, safeguards families from manufactured instability, and restores access to permanent residency and citizenship. Ultimately, it reaffirms that nationality cannot be weaponized to deny equal treatment.
Related Legal Battles: The court noted that eight other federal courts have reached similar conclusions, highlighting the systemic legal vulnerability of these agency actions. Indeed, the administration faces over 650 immigration-related lawsuits nationally, resulting in 63 losses, just 7 wins, and 166 policies halted pending litigation. This lopsided record emphasizes that policies driven by an anti-immigrant agenda rather than sound law will continue to falter in court.
Broader Immigration Strategy: This ruling hopefully returns USCIS to a simple bargain that if an individual follows all of USCIS’ rules, the agency should likewise follow the rules. The broader executive strategy to degrade the nation's lawful immigration framework is once again exposed. The ruling firmly checks this overreach, establishing that a pretext of national security is not a blank check to bypass administrative law or implement discriminatory restrictions, but the risk remains that additional attempts to achieve the same goal are forthcoming.
