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Jayapal applauds ruling against USCIS processing freeze
The ruling requires USCIS to resume processing applications from nationals of 39 countries.
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Malvika Choudhary - Sun, 21, Jun 2026
- 15:48 EDT
- 38
Pramila Jayapal / X/ @RepJayapal
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal welcomed a federal court ruling that struck down the Trump administration's freeze on immigration applications from 39 countries, calling it "a step in the right direction."
"Some good news for a change!" Jayapal wrote on X. "A judge ruled that Trump's freeze on processing immigration applications for 39 countries is illegal and that processing must restart immediately. This ruling is a step in the right direction. Let's keep up the fight."
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Some good news for a change! A judge ruled that Trump’s freeze on processing immigration applications for 39 countries is illegal and that processing must restart immediately.
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) June 21, 2026
This ruling is a step in the right direction. Let’s keep up the fight. pic.twitter.com/gyU0DspEd8
In a video statement, Jayapal said the policy, introduced last November, suspended the processing of immigration applications for people from 39 countries across Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, leaving hundreds of thousands of applicants waiting indefinitely for decisions on their cases.
"That meant that hundreds of thousands of applications got put on hold in some filing cabinet, even though those people had all paid substantial fees for the government to decide their case," Jayapal said. "It also meant that the lives of all those applicants were in total uncertain limbo."
She said a federal judge had ruled the policy unlawful and ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to resume processing the suspended applications, treat all nationalities equally, apply the same vetting standards to every applicant and approve applications that meet federal requirements.
Calling the court decision "a big win," Jayapal said it represented "a major rebuke against the Trump administration's plans to go after not just illegal immigration, but legal immigration, and to openly discriminate against certain applicants from certain countries."
She emphasized that the affected immigrants had followed legal procedures. "The people that Trump left indefinitely waiting for a decision on their applications did all their paperwork and were going through all the right processes," she said.
Jayapal also said the ruling would require the administration to begin addressing more than one million backlogged immigration applications that had remained unprocessed under the policy.
While welcoming the decision, Jayapal cautioned that the legal battle may not be over.
"This is not the end of the fight. The administration may still appeal this decision," she said. "But it's a major victory in our fight for a humane and just immigration system."
A U.S. federal judge on June 5 blocked a series of restrictions imposed by the Trump administration on legal immigration following the 2025 shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan immigrant in Washington, D.C. Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. ruled that restrictions affecting asylum applications, work permits, green card petitions, naturalization requests and other immigration benefits filed by nationals of 39 countries were unlawful.
The restrictions were introduced after President Donald Trump expanded travel and immigration measures targeting nationals from countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, citing national security concerns. The administration directed USCIS to suspend adjudication of a wide range of immigration benefits for applicants from the affected countries.
McConnell found that USCIS lacked the authority to impose blanket suspensions on immigration benefit processing and said applicants had been left in prolonged uncertainty because of their nationality rather than any deficiencies in their cases. The ruling ordered the agency to return to normal processing procedures.
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