Ninth circuit reinstates injunction of DHS public charge rule

Injunction narrowed by 9th Cir. Department of Homeland Security lost in the Ninth Circuit in its attempt to undo an injunction requiring Citizenship and Immigration Services to comply with statutory requirements for processing petitions for “Special Juvenile Immigration.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld but narrowed the injunction by saying a one-way tolling provision was unreasonably broad. The court may modify the struck tolling provision on remand. The Injunction narrowed by 9th Cir Court of Appeals issued a decision today affirming a permanent injunction. However, in recent years, USCIS allowed a backlog of tens of thousands of cases to emerge.

Special Immigrant (SIJ) Services — Injunction Narrowed by the Ninth Circuit

The Ninth Circuit recently upheld judicial oversight that requires USCIS to process Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) petitions in accordance with statutory and regulatory rules, but it narrowed the district-court injunction on one specific point. Concretely, the panel affirmed the injunction’s basic relief (keeping meaningful judicial review and requiring adjudicatory compliance) while vacating a one-way “tolling” provision that would have allowed SIJ petitioners — but not USCIS — to unilaterally pause statutory deadlines.

What the narrowing means in practice

• USCIS remains restrained to follow statute and procedure. The court’s decision preserves the district court’s requirement that USCIS not ignore statutory timelines and adjudicative duties in SIJ processing.
• But automatic one-way tolling is gone. The Ninth Circuit found the provision that let petitioners toll deadlines (without a matching toll for USCIS) unreasonably broad and therefore vacated it, sending the issue back for possible narrowing or rewording on remand.

Practical advice for practitioners and clients

• Treat adjudicative timelines as still legally important: preserve evidence of filing dates, notices, and any agency communications; do not assume automatic tolling will protect late filings.
• If USCIS delays, document every request and response; consider administrative complaints or targeted motions where appropriate.
• On remand, watch for a revised injunction or district-court guidance about an acceptable, reciprocal tolling mechanism — the court signaled it may permit a narrower, more balanced tolling rule if properly tailored.

Bottom line: the Ninth Circuit’s ruling keeps strong protections for SIJ petitioners by enforcing USCIS’s obligations, but it rejects an overly broad, unilateral tolling tool — so lawyers should preserve deadlines, track filings closely, and be ready to litigate narrow tolling solutions on remand.