Caribbean Immigrant Advocates Welcome US Court Wins Against Trump Visa And Asylum Limits

Caribbean immigrant-rights advocates based in New York on Monday, June 8, praised a federal district court decision from Rhode Island that invalidated immigration limits imposed by President Donald J. Trump and described in the case as unlawful.

The Trump policies included the stopping of asylum filings and the freezing of decisions on immigration applications, work permits, green cards and citizenship requests for people from 39 countries, most of them in Africa and the Caribbean, that were covered by the administration’s travel ban.

In a ruling issued Friday, Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. said the administration’s measures had, in practical terms, blocked Caribbean and other qualifying asylum seekers from remaining in the United States. He also found that the actions breached “the immigration laws governing the responsibilities of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.”

Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition, known as NYIC, told Caribbean Life that “every person seeking safety, stability and opportunity deserves a fair chance to have their case heard under the law.” NYIC is a policy and advocacy umbrella group representing more than 200 immigrant and refugee-rights organisations in New York State.

Awawdeh said Judge McConnell “reaffirmed what we already knew: that the Trump administration violated the law, and did so with anti-immigrant malice.”

“By shutting down access to asylum and preventing thousands of immigrants from receiving a decision on their immigration applications solely on the basis of which country they come from, the Trump administration acted against statute and against the rule of law,” Awawdeh said.

“Their unlawful actions left thousands of families in limbo, cut people from life-saving protections, and undermined the rule of law by attempting to bypass the immigration system established by Congress,” he added. “We applaud Judge McConnell’s ruling, which renews faith in our legal system as fair and accountable.”

Awawdeh also said that although the ruling reopens “critical pathways for many,” Congress still has a duty to push measures that protect due process, keep immigrant families safe and guarantee fair treatment for everyone under the law.

Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, said McConnell’s decision “reaffirms a basic principle: The federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from.” Democracy Forward is a legal nonprofit that helped several immigration groups and labour unions bring the case against the Trump administration.

“These unlawful policies caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylum seekers and communities across the country,” Perryman said.

Judge McConnell wrote that, because of Trump’s immigration policies, “many of those individuals remain without work, without legal status and without any meaningful ability to plan for their futures.”

“The court is reminded of a line often repeated in discussions around immigration policy: If people wish to immigrate to the United States, they ought to ‘follow the law’ and ‘do things the right way,’” he wrote. “This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that.”

In a separate immigration matter on Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James and a group of attorneys general won a case against the Trump administration over what they called an illegal US$100,000 charge on all new H-1B visa applicants. The H-1B programme allows highly trained immigrants to work in the United States on a temporary basis.

James said H-1B visa holders take up important posts in health care, education, technology and other industries, helping state economies and addressing serious shortages of essential workers, especially in health care.

The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts sided with James and 19 other attorneys general who had challenged the administration’s decision to attach the US$100,000 fee to every new H-1B application, far above the visa’s usual costs.

The court approved the coalition’s request for summary judgment and ruled that the policy creating the fee was unlawful.

“Every day, thousands of people with H-1B visas serve New Yorkers as doctors, teachers, and other skilled workers,” said Attorney General James. “Today, a court put an end to this administration’s illegal attempt to destroy this critical program and the many jobs it makes possible.”

“Workers with these visas contribute immensely to our state, and I will keep fighting to stop this administration’s unjust and unlawful attacks on our immigrant communities,” James said.

James said the H-1B system lets employers apply to hire workers in a “specialty occupation” for up to six years. She said H-1B employees work across public and private-sector fields and that the programme is vital to filling gaps in medicine, education and other highly skilled areas.

In their lawsuit, James and the coalition argued that cutting access to H-1B visas would cause major damage and deepen workforce shortages in key industries.

James said the State University of New York employs 693 H-1B workers, including many who support students in rural and suburban parts of New York State.

She also said New York hospitals are already dealing with a widespread nursing shortage, and that reducing the number of H-1B visa holders would worsen the problem because immigrants make up more than one-third of the state’s health-care workforce.

Other major New York sectors, including technology, finance and the arts, also depend on H-1B workers for essential roles, James said. She said more than 13,000 H-1B visa holders work in those fields across the state.

According to the New York attorney general, H-1B fees had traditionally amounted to several thousand dollars before the Trump administration announced in September 2025 that all new H-1B applications would face a US$100,000 charge.

James and the coalition filed suit in December 2025 to prevent the fee from taking effect. On Monday, the court granted summary judgment, ruled the fee unlawful and set aside the policy that created it.

The attorneys general who joined James in the lawsuit were from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.