Federal judge strikes down Trump's immigration freeze on 39 countries

The Trump administration's immigration freeze on 39 countries faced a major setback on Friday after a federal judge struck down the policy, calling it "arbitrary and capricious." In a 135-page opinion, Chief Judge John McConnell of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island found that the federal government essentially broke its own laws under the guise of national security by halting all legal immigration applications filed by citizens of 39 countries listed on President Donald Trump's "travel ban" list.

Last November, the Trump administration enacted the travel ban policy following a shooting incident near the White House. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was granted asylum in the U.S., opened fire on two West Virginia National Guard members deployed on a city crime-fighting mission. One of the soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died from her injuries. Labelling the shooting a "terrorist attack," the administration brought in an immediate freeze on immigration. 

In the months that followed, the policy banned U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from providing asylum, green cards, work permits, and other benefits to citizens of the affected countries. In March, the asylum pause was partially lifted for nationalities from outside the 39 countries in the "travel ban" list. The list included 19 "full suspension" nations, like Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Haiti, and Somalia, and 20 "partial suspension" nations, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Nigeria. 

Judge McConnell strongly rebuked the administration's actions, observing that affected immigrants were being punished purely by the "happenstance of their birth." In his ruling, McConnell wrote that USCIS "claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of 'national security' that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making."

"Accordingly, as set forth below, each of the Challenged Policies that USCIS enacted—the Benefits Hold Policy, the Global Asylum Hold Policy, the Comprehensive Re-Review Policy, and the Country-Specific Factors Policy—are declared unlawful and are vacated and set aside," Judge McConnell ruled. While the ruling comes as a major win for civil rights groups, like Democracy Forward, who sued the administration on behalf of affected families, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to appeal the ruling to a higher circuit court and will likely request an emergency stay to keep the ban in place while the legal battle plays out.