US Judge Rejects Trump Administration's Halt on Immigration Applications

Source: US News & World Report/Reuters

April 30, 2026, at 6:40 p.m.


BOSTON, April 30 (Reuters) - A federal judge on ⁠Thursday ⁠ruled that policies that make it ⁠harder for people from countries on President Donald Trump's travel ban list ​to get green cards and work permits are discriminatory and unlawful.

U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston reached that ‌conclusion as she issued a preliminary ‌injunction in a lawsuit by around 200 people from 20 countries including Iran, Haiti, Venezuela and Syria ⁠who sued ⁠over a halt on the processing of their immigration-related applications.

The lawsuit, filed in ​December, took aim at policies U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services adopted beginning in November affecting applications by immigrants seeking asylum, green cards and work authorization. Those policies have resulted in the agency placing a hold on the processing of ​applications from people from the 39 countries that are the subject of full or partial travel ⁠bans imposed ⁠by Trump, who has cited ⁠vetting and ​security concerns.

Before instituting that halt, the agency, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ​adopted a policy in November ⁠2025 that treats the nationality of people from those countries as a "significant negative factor" when reviewing their applications. Kobick, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, concluded the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in proving that policy ran afoul of the Immigration and Nationality Act's bar against nationality-based discrimination.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-30/us-judge-rejects-trump-administrations-halt-on-immigration-applications