Nationwide asylum freeze imposed

Summary

After the November 26, 2025 DC National Guard shooting by an Afghan parolee, USCIS halted all Afghan immigration processing the same day. A December 2, 2025 policy memo (PM-602-0192) suspended pending benefit requests for nationals of 19 travel-ban countries and paused all I-589 asylum and withholding adjudications nationwide. By March 30, 2026 USCIS said it had lifted the hold on asylum applications from non-high-risk countries, and on June 5, 2026 a Rhode Island federal court vacated all four freeze policies as unlawful.

What happened

After a November 26, 2025 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, in which the suspect was an Afghan parolee, USCIS halted all Afghan immigration processing on November 26, 2025. A December 2, 2025 policy memo, PM-602-0192, suspended all pending benefit requests for nationals of the 19 travel-ban countries, paused adjudication of all I-589 asylum and withholding applications nationwide regardless of nationality, and ordered re-review of already approved benefits and green cards for nationals from those countries who entered on or after January 20, 2021. In a March 30, 2026 alert, USCIS said it had lifted holds for asylum applications from non-high-risk countries, among other categories. Then on June 5, 2026, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. (D.R.I.) in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS vacated and declared unlawful under the APA all four policies - the Global Asylum Hold, the Benefits Hold, the Comprehensive Re-Review, and the Country-Specific Factors policy - ordering adjudications to restart nationwide. USCIS said on June 12, 2026 that it strongly disagreed with the order but would follow it, treating the vacated policies as not in effect, and would issue updated instructions; an appeal to the First Circuit is pending.

Impact on the United States

The nationwide hold stopped decisions on asylum applications regardless of nationality and halted processing for Afghans until a federal court vacated the policies as unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act in June 2026; the government's appeal leaves processing uncertain.

Documented effects

1. Nov 2025USCIS halted all Afghan immigration processing on November 26, 2025[1]
2. Dec 2025PM-602-0192 paused all pending I-589 asylum and withholding adjudications nationwide[2][3]
3. Dec 2025Re-review of approved benefits for nationals entering on or after Jan 20, 2021 (the Comprehensive Re-Review Policy) was among the four policies later vacated as unlawful.[3][4]
4. Jun 2026By March 30, 2026 USCIS said it had lifted the asylum hold for non-high-risk countries; on June 5, 2026 the D.R.I. court (Dorcas v. USCIS) vacated all four freeze policies as unlawful and ordered adjudications to restart, and USCIS said June 12 it would follow the order while an appeal proceeds.[7][4][5][8]
5. Jul 15, 2026The court denied the government's request to stay the vacatur pending appeal, so USCIS must keep processing applications from the 39 affected countries.[6]
6. Aug 24, 2026On August 24, 2026 a federal court in Northern California (Red Eagle Law v. Edlow) enjoined the hold memos PM-602-0192 and PM-602-0194, ordered USCIS to adjudicate applications in the normal course, and certified a class of applicants from the 39 travel-ban countries and the Palestinian Authority whose applications were on hold.[9]

Why this is rated severe

Severity 4 reflects a nationwide suspension of statutory asylum adjudication affecting all applicants regardless of nationality.

USCIS said by March 30, 2026 it had lifted the asylum hold for non-high-risk countries; all four freeze policies vacated June 5, 2026 in Dorcas v. USCIS; stay pending appeal denied July 15, 2026; N.D. Cal. enjoined the hold memos and certified a class August 24, 2026; appeal pending

Corrections & updates [5]

Every change to a fact on this page after publication is logged here, newest first.

1. Sep 29, 2026CorrectedDate

   USCIS suspended all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals on Nov. 26, 2025, the day of the shooting, not Nov. 28 (PBS NewsHour: 'On Nov. 26, USCIS said it would be suspending all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals').[1]

2. Sep 29, 2026UpdatedStatus

   On July 15, 2026 the Rhode Island federal court denied the government's request to stay its June 5 vacatur pending appeal, so USCIS must keep processing applications from the affected countries while the appeal proceeds. USCIS had said on June 12 that the hold memoranda would be treated as no longer in effect.[6]

   + Show previous and current text- Hide previous and current text

   Previously

   blocked-by-court (asylum hold partially lifted March 30, 2026; all four freeze policies vacated June 5, 2026 in Dorcas v. USCIS; appeal pending)

   Now

   blocked-by-court (asylum hold partially lifted March 30, 2026; all four freeze policies vacated June 5, 2026 in Dorcas v. USCIS; stay pending appeal denied July 15, 2026; appeal pending)

3. Sep 29, 2026CorrectedSource

   Nixon Peabody and Ogletree Deakins are law-firm client alerts (Tier 3), not major news (Tier 2), and have been relabeled. The Ogletree alert is dated June 9, 2026.[4][5]

4. Sep 29, 2026CorrectedSource

   Corrected: the entry said DHS partially lifted the asylum hold on March 30, 2026, a date no cited source gave. A USCIS alert dated March 30, 2026 says holds had been lifted for asylum applications from non-high-risk countries, among other categories; it does not give the date of that lift, and the entry now says so. The entry also said USCIS would 'pause implementation' of the vacated policies; USCIS's June 12, 2026 alert says it strongly disagrees with the order but will follow it, and that the policies should be treated as not in effect. Statements that the freeze contravened statutory obligations and collectively punished Afghan allies, which no cited source makes, were replaced with the court's finding.[7][8]

5. Sep 29, 2026UpdatedStatus

   Updated: on August 24, 2026 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Red Eagle Law v. Edlow) enjoined the hold memos PM-602-0192 and PM-602-0194, ordered USCIS to adjudicate applications in the normal course, and certified a class of applicants from the 39 travel-ban countries and the Palestinian Authority whose applications were on hold. USCIS said it disagrees but will follow the order. The status also now says, per a March 30, 2026 USCIS alert, that by that date USCIS had lifted the asylum hold for non-high-risk countries (no source gave March 30 as the date of the lift).[9][7]

   + Show previous and current text- Hide previous and current text

   Previously

   blocked-by-court (asylum hold partially lifted March 30, 2026; all four freeze policies vacated June 5, 2026 in Dorcas v. USCIS; stay pending appeal denied July 15, 2026; appeal pending)

   Now

   blocked-by-court (USCIS said by March 30, 2026 it had lifted the asylum hold for non-high-risk countries; all four freeze policies vacated June 5, 2026 in Dorcas v. USCIS; stay pending appeal denied July 15, 2026; N.D. Cal. enjoined the hold memos and certified a class August 24, 2026; appeal pending)

Sources [9]