An Obama-appointed federal judge in Rhode Island struck down a series of Trump administration immigration policies Friday, ordering officials to resume processing asylum applications and other immigration benefit requests that had been frozen for more than six months.
The policies were put in place by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) after an Afghan national shot two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., in November 2025, killing one. USCIS responded by halting asylum processing for applicants of all nationalities and freezing green card, work permit, and citizenship applications for people from 39 countries covered by the president’s travel ban. The agency also ordered a review of previously approved benefits for nationals of those countries who had entered the U.S. after January 20, 2021.
The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of nonprofit groups and labor unions led by Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island and Refugee Dream Center, along with organizations including the Service Employees International Union and the United Auto Workers.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. vacated all of it in a 135-page opinion, writing:
“More than six months ago, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (‘USCIS’) enacted a series of policies that threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo.”
He added that the freeze could not be blamed on anything the affected immigrants had done wrong:
“And USCIS’s hold on adjudications cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth.”
McConnell found that the policies violated federal immigration law and wrote that USCIS had allowed “anti-immigrant sentiments” to influence agency decision-making. As evidence, he cited public statements made by President Trump and then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in the days after the shooting. Noem, whose post Trump later reposted on social media, described immigrants as “killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies” and called for “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation.” Trump described the travel ban at a December rally as “a permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and many other countries.”
DHS pushed back on that reasoning. James Percival, legal counsel for the department, said in a statement:
“The Left has been running the same gambit with so-called ‘animus’ claims since 2017. It is sabotage dressed in legal clothing. It goes like this: (1) the admin is racist, (2) therefore a policy I don’t like is motivated by race, (3) therefore it is invalid. They have used it on virtually every Trump era Department of Homeland Security policy.”
McConnell was confirmed to the bench in 2011 on a 50-44 vote. Before joining the federal judiciary, he contributed roughly $190,000 to Democratic members of Congress and more than $200,000 to Democratic Party committees at the state and national level.
His wife, Sara Shea McConnell, donated more than $250,000 to Democratic candidates and causes.
McConnell’s nomination to the federal bench generated substantial controversy in 2010 and 2011. Legal Insurrection covered concerns raised by critics regarding his political contributions, legal record, and confirmation battle.
Earlier this year, McConnell sided with Democratic-led states challenging a federal spending freeze, and in May, he temporarily blocked cuts to several congressionally created agencies. Those rulings prompted Rep. Andy Clyde (R-GA) to introduce an impeachment resolution alleging a conflict of interest over McConnell’s seat on the board of Crossroads Rhode Island, a nonprofit that receives government funding.
The resolution states:
“There is a clear conflict of interest given that Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. presided over and made a decision regarding a case which significantly impacts the funding of an organization in which he serves as a director of and as a fiduciary.”
America First Legal filed a separate judicial complaint over the same board membership.
McConnell declined to comment on the criticism. Frank Perry, the chief deputy clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and the court’s public information officer, told reporters in an email that, “Judge McConnell very much appreciates your question and often sits down with members of the media upon request. However, he does not speak with the media or answer questions along these lines while he is presiding over cases involving the Administration.”
The Trump administration is expected to appeal. McConnell is also presiding over a lawsuit brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging administration efforts to withhold federal transportation funds from jurisdictions that decline to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
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