Court Blocks ICE Biometrics Ban for Detained Applicants

You filed your green card or T visa application months ago. Then ICE detained you — and suddenly USCIS stopped scheduling your biometrics appointment. Without fingerprints, your application stalls. Without a completed application, you stay detained. A federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled in October 2026 that this cycle likely violates federal law, and ordered the government to stop enforcing the policy while the case continues.

What the court found

In December 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would no longer collect fingerprints, photographs, or signatures from people in ICE custody who have pending USCIS applications — unless those applications were filed with an immigration court (the Executive Office for Immigration Review). That left out people applying for green cards (permanent residency), special immigrant juvenile status for abused or neglected children, T visas for human trafficking survivors, U visas for crime survivors, and asylum for relatives of people already granted asylum. USCIS requires biometrics for all of these. Miss your biometrics appointment, and USCIS treats your application as abandoned and denies it. ICE also stopped transporting detained people to their appointments, which it had previously done as a matter of policy.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in Civil Action No. 26-01510, found that the plaintiffs — detained immigrants with pending USCIS applications — are likely to succeed in showing the policy is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the federal law that governs how agencies must make rules. The court found DHS adopted the policy without a reasoned explanation and without going through the required public notice-and-comment process. The court also noted a concrete harm: for T visa and U visa applicants, completing biometrics can trigger a "bona fide" determination that automatically pauses a deportation order — even before USCIS decides the full application. Blocking biometrics collection removes that protection entirely.

The court granted a stay under Section 705 of the APA, which temporarily restores the old policy: ICE must again collect biometrics for detained people with pending USCIS applications. The court declined to issue a broader preliminary injunction covering a class of all similarly situated detainees, finding the stay sufficient at this stage. The government has not explained the circumstances under which it would or would not agree to collect biometrics on a case-by-case basis, which the court found troubling.

What to do

• If you or a family member is detained by ICE and has a pending USCIS application — for a green card, T visa, U visa, special immigrant juvenile status, or derivative asylum — contact an immigration attorney immediately. The court's stay means DHS must resume collecting biometrics, but you may need to take steps to reschedule a missed appointment.
• If USCIS denied your application as "abandoned" because you missed a biometrics appointment while detained, ask an attorney about filing a motion to reopen (a formal request to reconsider a closed case) based on this court ruling.
• Gather documentation showing you were in ICE custody on the date of your missed biometrics appointment. This record will support any request to reschedule or reopen your case.
• Follow updates on Civil Action No. 26-01510 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — the stay is temporary and the case is ongoing.

What to do, step by step — see our guide “Your Rights During an ICE Encounter”.