The Trump administration faces a proposed class action seeking to halt policies that have frozen green card applications for thousands of refugees already admitted to the United States and subjected some to renewed scrutiny of their original refugee claims. The lawsuit, filed Monday by six refugee organizations and four individual refugees in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, challenges three Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policies: an indefinite hold on certain refugees' applications for lawful permanent residence, a program to re-vet refugees admitted during the Biden administration, and a new rule reducing the time refugees have to respond to proposed termination of their refugee status from 30 days to 10. The plaintiffs argue that the three policies violate federal immigration and administrative law and constitutional due-process protections. The plaintiffs simultaneously asked the court for emergency relief, including an immediate administrative stay of the new 10-day termination rule.
They said at least one refugee had already received a termination notice under the new system and could lose refugee status while the court considers the wider challenge. Newsweek contacted USCIS and its parent agency, DHS, for comment via email outside office hours. The plaintiffs want the court to block the three policies while the case proceeds and ultimately set them aside.
They are also asking the court to certify a nationwide class consisting of people admitted to the United States as refugees who had not adjusted to lawful permanent resident status as of October 14, 2026, or afterward. They say the group numbers in the tens of thousands. The court has not yet certified the class.
All four have applied for permanent residence and are awaiting decisions, according to court filings. The six organizations also serving as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, International Institute of New England, African Communities Together, HIAS and Refugee Council USA. The case challenges a November 21, 2025, USCIS policy memorandum that placed pending green card applications from refugees admitted between January 20, 2021, and February 20, 2025, on hold and called for a review and potential re-interviews of refugees admitted during that period.
The memorandum said the measures were intended to reassess whether those refugees met the refugee definition when admitted and cited national security and public safety concerns. The plaintiffs argue the agency has not substantiated broader concerns about refugees vetted and admitted during the period. "The Trump-Vance administration is trapping refugees in cruel legal limbo by blocking their path to permanent residency while simultaneously making it easier to strip them of their lawful status and the protections they are eligible for," Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, told Newsweek.
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