On October 7, 2026, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s policy of not collecting the biometric information required to continue processing the immigration applications of people in immigration detention.
The judge noted, among other things, that “the plaintiffs have shown injury from the policy, which acts as a de facto denial of their applications, substantially injuring their ability to obtain the immigration statuses they may be entitled to receive and leading to ongoing detention and the concrete risk of deportation that could not occur under law if their applications are granted. … While it may be true that some plaintiffs could continue to pursue their applications upon deportation, deportation itself is plainly injury in fact. Indeed, in addition to the concrete injury of being removed from the country, the record contains evidence that some plaintiffs face threats to their lives in their home countries.” He also noted that the plaintiffs “have proffered credible evidence that the policy changed the status quo, in which [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] collected biometric information, generally by taking detained people to their biometrics appointments.”
The judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to file a status report by October 21, 2026, apprising the court of compliance with the order.
