A US federal judge in Boston has ruled that policies introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration, which made it harder for people from countries on the US travel ban list to obtain green cards and work permits, are discriminatory and unlawful. US District Judge Julia Kobick issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday in a lawsuit brought by approximately 200 people from 20 countries, including Iran, Haiti, Venezuela and Syria.
The plaintiffs sued over a halt on the processing of their immigration-related applications, challenging policies adopted by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, starting in November 2025. The policies targeted by the lawsuit have resulted in USCIS placing a hold on applications from people from the 39 countries subject to full or partial travel bans imposed by President Trump, who has cited vetting and security concerns.
Before instituting that halt, USCIS, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, adopted a policy in November 2025 that treated the nationality of people from those countries as a significant negative factor when reviewing their applications. Judge Kobick, who was appointed by former Democratic President Joe Biden, concluded the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in proving that the policy violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s prohibition against nationality-based discrimination.
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The judge also ruled that the agency’s subsequent halt on reviewing asylum and naturalisation applications was contrary to Congress’s command that the agency issue decisions on such applications, and that the pause on reviewing green card and work authorisation applications violated regulations governing them.
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