DHS Processes Thousands of Immigration Benefits After Order

US Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued decisions on almost 9,000 pending requests in the month since a federal court ordered it to drop a freeze on benefits like visas and asylum claims for Ukrainians and others admitted through Biden-era humanitarian parole programs.

The agency on Tuesday updated a Boston federal court on its progress lifting the benefits pause. Plaintiffs challenging the dismantling of parole programs had told the District of Massachusetts that weeks after the May 28 order that immigrants were still being blocked from decisions on those benefits.

As part of a broader immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, USCIS paused adjudication of pending requests in February for migrants who came to the US through parole pathways for Ukraine and Afghanistan as well as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The pause, which agency officials said would allow for extra vetting, also affected immigrants admitted through a family reunification program. Blocking those benefits prevented parolees from securing another legal status in the US before their protections were canceled or expired.

Plaintiffs sued to block the Trump administration’s termination of parole and to set aside the pause on new benefits. Although Judge Indira Talwani stayed the cancellation of the CHNV program, the US Supreme Court later allowed the Department of Homeland Security to move ahead with stripping the protections while the litigation continues.

More than half of the 500,000 parolees admitted from CHNV countries have applied for green cards, asylum, or Temporary Protected Status before the benefits freeze, according to USCIS data released in a court filing last month. Ukrainian parolees filed more than 90,000 applications for those benefits.

In the latest court declaration, USCIS Acting Deputy Director Kika Scott said 8,855 benefit requests were adjudicated for immigrants admitted through Uniting for Ukraine, CHNV, or family reunification parole programs between May 28 and June 30. The agency didn’t respond to a request for additional detail on benefits approved so far.

“Although cases are not on hold, USCIS does not guarantee a prompt decision on a pending immigration benefit request from a special program parolee or what that decision may be,” Scott said in the filing.

Plaintiffs in the litigation are represented by Justice Action Center, Human Rights First, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP. DHS is represented by the Department of Justice.

The case is Doe v. Noem, D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-10495, declaration filed 7/1/25.