WASHINGTON — Six refugee advocacy organisations and four refugees sued the Trump administration in federal court on Monday, filing a class action that challenges three policies at once: an indefinite freeze on green card applications from refugees admitted under President Biden, a mass re-vetting of those already-admitted refugees, and a new rule that cuts the time a refugee has to fight the termination of their status from 30 days to 10 days.

Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), a coalition of nearly 40 resettlement and humanitarian organisations, said it had joined the lawsuit alongside the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, the International Institute of New England, African Communities Together (ACT), HIAS and four individual refugees from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Colombia and Iraq. The case was brought by Democracy Forward, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and pro bono counsel against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Source: Refugee Council USA

Law360's immigration coverage also reported the filing on Monday, summarising the challenge as one to the federal government's hold on processing refugees' green card applications and to a rule allowing swifter revocation of refugee status, with the organisations arguing the administration is departing from longstanding practice.

Source: Law360

The first two policies come from a November 21, 2025 directive by USCIS Director Joseph Edlow ordering an immediate, indefinite hold on pending green card (I-485) applications from refugees admitted between January 20, 2021 and February 20, 2025, and a review and re-interview of all of those refugees — a group of roughly 233,000 people, with about 113,000 green card applications pending by the plaintiffs' figures. The third policy is a DHS interim final rule published on October 14 that cut the response time on a Notice of Intent to Terminate refugee status from 30 days to 10; DHS took comments on it through November 13.

Source: ProfiloPolitics (case reporting)

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, asks the court to block all three policies — including an immediate stay of the termination rule — arguing they violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act and that the 10-day window violates due process. "The Trump-Vance administration is trapping refugees in cruel legal limbo," said Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, "blocking their path to permanent residency while simultaneously making it easier to strip them of their lawful status."

The administration says it is repairing a screening system it says broke down under its predecessor: the November 2025 memo said the Biden administration prioritised "expediency, quantity, and admissions over quality interviews and detailed screening and vetting," and a USCIS spokesman, Zach Kahler, has said the administration is "ensuring that refugee status is reserved only for those who were eligible under the law." The administration had issued no public response to the lawsuit itself in the coverage available on Monday. These are the two sides' claims; the court has not ruled.