In a rebuke of recent USCIS immigration policies, a federal district court in Rhode Island vacated four agency policies that effectively suspended adjudication of thousands of immigration benefit requests. The June 5, 2026, decision in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS found that the policies exceeded USCIS’s statutory authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). As a result, USCIS may no longer rely on these policies to halt adjudications of asylum applications, adjustment of status applications, employment authorization requests, naturalization applications, and other immigration benefits.
The ruling represents a judicial setback to the administration’s recent immigration enforcement initiatives and may serve as a reminder that, by law, immigration agencies cannot fundamentally alter congressionally created immigration processes through internal policy memoranda alone.
Which Policies Did the Court Strike Down?
The court invalidated four… Read the complete article here...
©2026 Greenberg Traurig, LLP. All rights reserved.
