Ohio Judge Blocks Trump Immigration Policies Citing Racial Bias

U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio blocked three United States Citizenship and Immigration Services policies that froze green card and work permit applications for immigrants from seven countries, including Burma, Canada, Iran, Nigeria, Syria, Tanzania, and Venezuela. This marks the 11th ruling against the administration's immigration crackdown.

In his ruling, Algenon L. Marbley cited a pattern of "outright hostility" toward immigrants from the Caribbean, South America, Africa, and Asia expressed by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. The judge contrasted this with the administration's explicit preference for white immigrants. Between October 2025 and May 2026, 6,665 of 6,668 admitted refugees were from South Africa.

The court highlighted efforts by the administration to reserve 10,000 refugee slots exclusively for white Afrikaners within a proposed 17,500-person refugee cap, based on claims that white South African farmers face genocide. Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project, noted that resettlement cases for white Afrikaners are being processed at a record pace, whereas the program has never been fast for other populations. Government representatives reportedly informed the court during the hearing that they expected to lose the case.