Following the court ruling that declared USCIS policies illegal that halted immigration processes for nationals of 39 countries —including Cuba— immigration attorney Liudmila Marcelo explained this Friday, in an interview with CiberCuba, the specific steps that those affected should take to take advantage of the decision.
The ruling, issued by a federal judge in Rhode Island in the case Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS, declared four USCIS policies illegal that kept applicants in an illegal and indefinite "migration limbo" since the end of November 2025.
Marcelo noted that the first step is to await the official response from USCIS. "We are waiting to see how USCIS will respond to this. That is the first thing we need to wait for because I always expect the worst so that I can be surprised by the good."
However, the lawyer clarified that those affected do not have to sit idly by while awaiting that official response.
"If the government is indeed providing us with the steps and the USCIS page confirms that it will go ahead with this rule and lift the pause, then we need to start figuring out how to proceed with the process to begin preparing for a mandamus," Marcelo explained.
In the meantime, he recommended that individuals with pending cases begin submitting acceleration requests—known as 'requests'—to USCIS immediately, either by phone or in writing.
"So everyone on the computer, on the laptop, or whatever you want to call it, everyone send a request," urged the presenter, Tania Costa.
Regarding what to include in those requests, Marcelo was clear: "The number of days that they have been waiting for the residency without a decision and the number of days that their case has been pending after the fingerprints and for which a decision has still not been granted."
The lawyer emphasized that legal representation is not necessary to start with the requests. "The person can call, and if they have a lawyer, the lawyer can also call, but both can call. Only the person and their lawyer can handle that."
These 'requests' are not a minor procedure: they are essential evidence required to later file a writ of mandamus with a federal court.
"You first need to make a couple of 'requests'; you must have evidence that you've made the 'request' for when you get to Federal Court and say, look, we have done all this and we haven't received a decision. It's not something that you can just file for a Mandamus out of the blue," Marcelo warned.
The attorney also pointed out a key aspect that could lead to confusion: the ruling does not lift the Travel Ban for the 39 affected countries, but only the internal USCIS policies that were hindering the granting of citizenship and residency within the United States.
The pause had a devastating impact on Cubans: according to data from the Cato Institute. Approvals for residency for citizens of the island dropped by 99.8% between February 2025 and January 2026.
Marcelo had publicly predicted that the pause would end between May and June 2026, a prediction that came true exactly on Friday, June 5.
"I always said, Tania, that I preferred to wait until they announced the end of the pause to start with the 'requests' and the mandamus, because now they can't tell me that the process is on hold due to a USCIS policy that prohibits processes from being halted," the lawyer concluded.
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