Rhode Island Federal Court Vacates USCIS Immigration Benefit Freeze for 39 Travel Ban Countries — Broadest Travel Ban Processing Ruling to Date

On June 5, 2026, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island issued a sweeping ruling vacating — not merely enjoining — USCIS policies that had halted immigration benefit adjudications for nationals of 39 countries subject to President Trump's travel bans under Proclamations 10949 and 10998. Unlike prior court orders limited to named plaintiffs, McConnell's ruling vacated the underlying USCIS policy itself, carrying far broader nationwide effect covering green cards, work permits, naturalization applications, and other immigration benefits that had been frozen for affected nationals. The decision represents the most expansive judicial action on travel-ban-related immigration processing to date: while previous rulings had issued injunctions protecting specific plaintiffs, a vacatur of the underlying USCIS policy eliminates the administrative basis for the freeze entirely. Immigration attorneys reported immediate operational significance, effectively requiring USCIS to resume adjudicating applications from affected nationals that had been held in suspension. The ruling came on the same day the Senate passed the $70 billion ICE/CBP funding package — one of the few significant judicial expansions of immigrant rights against a backdrop of record enforcement funding. The Trump administration was expected to appeal the vacatur to the First Circuit.