On July 21, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts made an order in the case Venez. Ass’n of Mass., et al. v. United States Citizenship and Immigr. Servs., et al., 26-cv-13038-NMG (D. Mass.).
The court partly approved the plaintiffs’ emergency request to temporarily pause some USCIS policies based on H.R. 1, the Reconciliation Act of 2025, also called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The plaintiffs are groups representing people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and those waiting for asylum decisions.
USCIS will follow the court’s order while the legal process continues.
The court’s order pauses these parts of the July 2025 Federal Register Notice (FRN), the March 2026 website update, and the April 2026 Interim Final Rule (IFR):
Using H.R. 1 rules to set expiration dates for employment authorization documents (EADs) based on TPS. This means any TPS-based EADs that were previously extended will keep their old expiration dates.
Rejecting asylum applications if the applicant does not pay the annual asylum fee (AAF).
Ending work permission if the asylum fee is not paid.
Starting removal (deportation) proceedings only because a person did not pay the asylum fee.
The court’s order allows USCIS to keep collecting the annual asylum fee (AAF). So, anyone who gets a notice from USCIS about paying the AAF must pay the fee as the notice tells them. All other fees and rules from H.R. 1 remain in effect.
USCIS will share new instructions as the case moves forward.