Immigrants Sue Over Trump Benefit Freeze Blocking Work Permits

A group of Iranian and Sudanese immigrants are challenging the Trump administration’s hold on employment authorization documents and other benefits for people from nearly 40 countries covered by an ongoing travel ban.

Citizenship and Immigration Services late last year stopped processing benefits for immigrants from travel ban countries already present in the US. USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a Dec. 2 memo that national security concerns after the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC required a comprehensive review of all immigrants from those countries.

The travel ban applied to 19 countries when it was rolled out in June. After the White House expanded the ban to an additional 20 countries in a December executive order, a second USCIS memo paused benefits for people from those countries. The agency has also halted asylum claims for immigrants from all countries.

Edlow has no lawful basis to freeze benefits, a group of 32 immigrants argue in a complaint filed Monday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs include physicians, scientists, and researchers who have already had petitions approved for employment-based green cards through the EB-2 National Interest Waiver pathway. That category allows professionals to seek a green card without a sponsor if their work is deemed in the national interest.

Withholding of work permits violates the Administrative Procedure Act because the policy is arbitrary and capricious and the Immigration and Nationality Act because it discriminates on the basis of national origin and ethnicity, the plaintiffs claim. They argue the policy violates equal protection under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

The suit asks the court to direct USCIS to process work permit applications and to enjoin the two policy memos blocking benefits for immigrants from travel ban countries.

Plaintiffs are represented by Curtis Morrison of Red Eagle Law, LC.

The case is Behdin v. Edlow, N.D. Cal., No. 5:26-cv-00566, complaint filed 1/19/26.