TL;DR: A federal court in Rhode Island just struck down three USCIS policies that had frozen thousands of immigration cases based on nationality, ruling the agency overstepped its authority by applying entry restrictions to people already in the U.S. While USCIS says it’s complying for now, it has filed an appeal, meaning the case is far from over. If your application was stuck, delayed, or flagged for re-review, here’s what this ruling means and what to watch for next.
Transcript:
If your immigration case was stuck, delayed, or just not moving at all this past year, this video’s for you. My name is Gabriella Agostinelli, and I am a lawyer with Berardi Immigration Law. In a major federal court decision, Dorcas v. USCIS, a judge struck down 3 key USCIS policies that had effectively frozen thousands of immigration cases. And today, we’re breaking down what each of these policies did, why the court invalidated them, and most importantly, what this means for your case now.
Let’s get into it. So what happened in Dorcas? So in June 20 26, a federal court in Rhode Island vacated 3 major USCIS policies that were all tied to presidential proclamations issued under an immigration law that allows the president to restrict entry into the US. But here’s the key issue.
USCIS took that entry authority and applied it to people already inside the United States by freezing their benefit applications. The court said, “No, no, no, no, no, that goes too far.” So let’s start with the first memo. It paused all asylum applications regardless of nationality.
It placed a hold on benefit applications for individuals from what was then 19 high-risk countries. It required the re-review of already approved cases going back to January 20 21. What that meant in practice is that cases could move forward, biometrics, interviews, RFEs, but no final decisions were issued.
And even worse, people with approved green cards or benefits could be reinvestigated. This was essentially a nationwide adjudication freeze, especially impacting nationals of certain countries, regardless of individual merit. This brings us to the second policy memo, where USCIS really doubled down. And here’s what it did.
expanded the freeze to additional countries under the second proclamation. It required holds on all pending benefit applications for those individuals. It again required retroactive review of approvals since 20 21. The number of affected countries grew to roughly 39 total, including Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, and many African and Caribbean nations. This affected employment-based cases, family petitions, naturalization cases, and work permit applications.
At this point, these first 2 policies became a system-wide processing bottleneck tied to nationality. So finally, policy 3. This one’s a little different, but equally important. The memo told USCIS officers to consider nationality and country conditions when exercising discretion. So based on a specific provision of the law, it made country-specific concerns a negative factor in adjudications.
The practical effect of this was that even if somebody was eligible, USCIS could deny them based on discretionary concerns tied to nationality. And here’s why this matters. This policy laid the groundwork for the broader freezes. It shifted decisions away from case-specific facts to nationality-based risk assumptions.
So why did the court strike these down? Well, it found that the agency exceeded its statutory authority. The relevant provision of the law being considered, INA Section 212 F, applies to entry, not benefit applications inside the United States. USCIS cannot impose indefinite delays where the law requires adjudication.
And importantly, USCIS cannot create nationwide freezes based solely on nationality. And so what is USCIS doing now? As of June 20 26, USCIS has confirmed it is complying with the court order, although it strongly disagrees. Uh, and these policies are not treated as if or the policies are being treated as if they are not in effect. So what does this mean?
Well, cases that were previously on hold should resume adjudication. Officers should no longer freeze decisions, apply these nationality-based restrictions. However, and this is a big however, USCIS has officially filed its appeal. For now, the battle over the USCIS benefits freeze has moved from the district court to the appellate stage, and employers, foreign nationals, and practitioners should closely monitor developments over the coming weeks.
We’ll continue to monitor developments closely. If you found this helpful, don’t forget to like and subscribe for more immigration updates explained clearly.
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