A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday granted emergency relief, temporarily blocking portions of Trump administration immigration policies that would have caused tens of thousands of asylum seekers and immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine to lose work authorization, one day before new government policies were set to take effect.

US District Judge Nathaniel Gorton issued the five-page order in Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts et al. v. USCIS et al., a lawsuit challenging US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policies implementing portions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law passed by Congress in July 2025. The law created a new annual asylum application fee and restricted work authorization for TPS holders.

The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, the National TPS Alliance, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and 32BJ SEIU, challenges three USCIS policies. The first policy is regarding a new rule allowing the agency to reject asylum applications and terminate work permits when applicants fail to pay the newly created fee without adequate notice or an opportunity to appeal. The second and third policies are the April 2026 interim final rule removing the longstanding regulatory requirement that USCIS adjudicate initial asylum work authorization applications within 30 days and the retroactive application of the new rules to TPS holders from El Salvador, Sudan, and Ukraine. Plaintiffs argue the policies were adopted without required public notice-and-comment rulemaking in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and exceed the agency’s statutory authority.

Judge Gorton did not block collection of the asylum fee itself, but temporarily blocked certain consequences of nonpayment, including the rejection of asylum applications, termination of work permits, and initiation of removal proceedings. Writing that “the consequences faced by plaintiffs are potentially severe”, the judge indicated that he will rule on a longer-term injunction by August 5.

“This decision protects thousands of asylum seekers and TPS holders from immediate and irreparable harm while this case moves forward,” said Democracy Forward president Skye Perryman in a statement. “Without this relief, families who have followed the law and relied on longstanding humanitarian protections faced the sudden loss of their employment authorization.”

USCIS had not publicly responded to the order as of Tuesday.

Tuesday’s ruling is the latest in a series of federal court challenges to the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail TPS protections. The US Supreme Court in June allowed the administration to end TPS for Haitian and Syrian nationals in a 6-3 decision. The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts previously blocked the administration’s termination of TPS for Ethiopian nationals in April.