RI federal judge denies Trump’s emergency stay request in asylum application freeze case

A Rhode Island federal judge on Wednesday left intact his ruling from last month blocking the Trump administration’s freeze on processing asylum applications from nearly 40 countries.

Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. denied U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) request to put his June 5 order on hold while the case is appealed, writing that administration officials “did not offer a persuasive reason” to disturb the ruling and undercut it through their own affidavit. The Trump administration had argued that the judge’s decision hampers national security screening.

Those comments mirrored the skepticism McConnell expressed during the nearly hour-long hearing before issuing his order in the lawsuit led by two Providence-based nonprofits, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island and Refugee Dream Center.

“It’s been a month since the court ruled,” McConnell told Tyler Becker, an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil division. “If national security were so at stake, why didn’t you ask me to stop the implementation immediately?”

Instead, Citizenship and Immigration Services waited until June 19 to file its motion for an emergency stay. The filing included an affidavit from the agency’s Deputy Director Angelica Alfonso-Royals claiming that immigration cases now have to be adjudicated “without the benefit of review through maximum vetting.”

“As a result, USCIS may miss critical national security, public safety, or integrity concerns that put the American people and the lawful immigration system at risk,” Alfonso-Royals wrote.

To support that claim, the affidavit included a list of 10 countries said to have “little to no credible identity management infrastructure.” But three of those examples — Ethiopia, Liberia and Pakistan — are not covered by the travel ban.

“The evidence before the court is that the choosing of these 39 countries that the government is stopping people from seeking legal positions in this country is totally arbitrary and capricious,” McConnell said.

Federal authorities suspended immigration work permits and related benefits last November following a Washington, D.C., shooting in which an Afghan national killed one National Guard member and wounded another. In March, a coalition of nonprofit organizations and labor unions that represent and serve immigrant communities filed a complaint, claiming the Trump administration’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the U.S. Constitution’s right to due process.

McConnell had determined that the USCIS policies violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering, which he repeated during Wednesday’s hearing.

“Congress decided that that was inappropriate — that making immigration decisions based on national origin goes against American values,” McConnell said. “It’s like a bedrock principle.”

McConnell found the plaintiff groups and their clients did face irreparable harm, writing that countless immigrants living in the United States lost their jobs, legal status, and ability to plan for their futures as a result of the Trump administration’s policies.

“Quite tellingly, the government has little about these harms and provides no evidence to the contrary,” he wrote.

Plaintiff organizations say their immigrant clients have seen meaningful relief since the policies were vacated. Ryan Cooper, a senior counsel with Democracy Forward, noted that two Haitian clients for Dorcas International recently received word that they are scheduled to take the oath of citizenship within the next week inside Rhode Island’s federal courthouse in the very room where the motion hearing was being held.

“These individuals were originally scheduled to become U.S. citizens all the way back in December of 2025, but their ceremonies were canceled and their lives were put on hold as a result of the policies challenged in this litigation,” Cooper noted. 

Another client from Nigeria finally had their application for DACA renewal granted and Afghan national was able to get their travel paperwork, he added.

“None of this would have been possible without the court’s order declaring the policies at issue in this litigation unlawful,” Cooper said.

The plaintiff coalition celebrated McConnell’s ruling in a statement issued after 5 p.m.

“We are relieved that this decision ensures that the court’s ruling remains in effect while this case moves forward on appeal,” they said. “The court has already recognized that these policies are unlawful and cannot continue to keep families, workers, asylum seekers, and communities in legal limbo simply because of where they were born.”

Spokespeople for USCIS and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Citizenship and Immigration Services, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.