Story perspectives

Judge Declares USCIS Freeze Illegal, Revives Million Applications

6/7/2026

Summary

Story summary

Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled USCIS’s freeze on applications from 39 nations illegal under immigration law and the Administrative Procedure Act.
He said the freeze stemmed from animus, citing President Donald Trump and Governor Kristi Noem’s labeling of those immigrants as “killers” and “leeches.”
The decision ends a freeze that stalled over one million work-permit, asylum and immigration applications, praised by the Refugee Dream Center and American Gateways.

History

Historical Context

In 1996 Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, signed by President Bill Clinton and made effective April 1 1997, creating reinstatement of removal and expanding executive power to suspend immigration benefits. Judge John J. McConnell Jr.’s February 2024 order blocking USCIS’s freeze echoes that discretionary authority, a shift that helped raise annual deportations to over 180,000 in the early 2000s.

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Story summary

Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled USCIS’s freeze on applications from 39 nations illegal under immigration law and the Administrative Procedure Act.
He said the freeze stemmed from animus, citing President Donald Trump and Governor Kristi Noem’s labeling of those immigrants as “killers” and “leeches.”
The decision ends a freeze that stalled over one million work-permit, asylum and immigration applications, praised by the Refugee Dream Center and American Gateways.

1 / 2