A Rhode Island federal judge vacated four USCIS memoranda freezing immigration processing for 39 countries, voiding the policies nationwide under the APA.
Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island vacated four USCIS policy memoranda on June 5, 2026, that had indefinitely suspended immigration benefit processing for nationals of 39 designated "high-risk" countries [1]. The ruling, issued on APA grounds, sets aside the policies themselves rather than merely restraining their enforcement, a distinction with immediate practical consequences for tens of thousands of pending green card, employment authorization, and asylum applications [1] [2].
The case, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS, was brought by a Providence-based refugee resettlement and immigration services organization challenging the freeze as unlawful agency action [1]. USCIS had issued the four memoranda without notice-and-comment rulemaking and without providing a reasoned explanation for the indefinite suspension, the court found [1]. Judge McConnell concluded that the agency's failure to follow required rulemaking procedures rendered the memoranda void under the Administrative Procedure Act [2].
The procedural form of the remedy distinguishes this ruling from earlier challenges to the same freeze. Courts in other districts had issued preliminary injunctions protecting only named plaintiffs, leaving the underlying policies intact for everyone else [1]. Vacatur under the APA operates differently: it annuls the agency action, meaning USCIS cannot continue applying the freeze to any applicant and cannot simply refile the same policies without conducting proper rulemaking [1] [2]. That higher barrier to re-promulgation makes the ruling structurally more durable than injunctive relief.
The substantive reach is correspondingly broad. The 39 countries covered by the freeze span multiple regions, and the suspended categories, green card adjudications, EAD renewals, and asylum processing, affect some of the most time-sensitive benefit applications in the immigration system [2]. Because vacatur carries nationwide effect, USCIS field offices and service centers across the country must resume adjudications for affected nationals absent a successful appeal or emergency stay [1].
The government's next steps are likely to include an emergency motion to stay the ruling pending appeal to the First Circuit, or a renewed rulemaking effort designed to cure the procedural defects the court identified [2]. Any stay request will require the government to show a likelihood of success on the merits and irreparable harm from resuming adjudications, a threshold Judge McConnell's reasoning will make difficult to meet [1]. The ruling stands as the most far-reaching judicial check yet on the administration's effort to use administrative memoranda, rather than formal rulemaking, to curtail immigration processing for nationals of travel-ban-designated countries [1] [2].