A federal Obama judge, John J. McConnell of Rhode Island, struck down several of the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict asylum claims and other immigration benefits. He claimed the measures exceeded agency authority and were motivated by “anti-immigrant sentiments.”
This is the judge who ordered the administration to pay SNAP benefits from emergency funds after Democrats shut down the government.
In April 2025, he ordered the Trump administration to lift a freeze on federal funds. U.S. District Judge John McConnell ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to unfreeze federal funds to states after plaintiffs alleged the agency had failed to comply with an earlier court order.
Judge John McConnell ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze Inflation Reduction Act funds. He has many conflicts of interest. He disclosed that he owns $250,000 in stock in a company that received $75 million from the Act.
DC reporter Matthew Foldi found that he owns stock in Accelera by Cummins. Accelera is still waiting for its $75 million from the Inflation ‘Reduction’ Act.
President Trump wanted to buy out some workers and fire others. McConnell threatened Donald Trump with imprisonment, stopped the buyouts of federal workers and the firings aimed at downsizing Big Government, and demanded the release of frozen funds to USAID. These judges have too much power, especially when they are compromised and are making decisions based on personal opinions.
McConnell is a crackpot who compared Donald Trump’s first term to the Civil War and Jim Crow.
McConnell paused government spending in some areas. Upon advice from the Department of Justice, Donald Trump froze climate, tax, and health funds. He said they were not included in Judge McConnell’s order. That’s where millions of dollars were assigned as Biden left office. The funds are going to leftist organizations to be wasted.
McConnell Is Ordering a Review of Asylum Claims Again
Judge John J. McConnell Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, on Friday voided four policies issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services last winter. One of the agency’s policies paused the adjudication of immigration benefits—such as work authorization and green cards—for people who came to the U.S. from one of the 39 countries under President Trump’s travel bans.
Another ordered a review of prior benefit grants to anyone from those countries who entered the U.S. since the start of the Biden administration.
A group of nonprofits and unions sued the government in March, arguing the policies had thrown the lives of the immigrants they represent into chaos. Many lost their jobs or legal status while waiting for their cases to be adjudicated, the groups said, causing significant emotional and financial distress.
In a 135-page opinion, McConnell said the policies “placed the lives of countless individuals on hold—solely by virtue of their countries of birth.”
We apparently owe an awful lot to foreigners, and district judges have more power than the president.
McConnell loses every time, and he will lose again on appeal. He only wants to delay.
