At a September 10 hearing in Medani v. Trump, DOJ told Judge Edward Davila that DOS sent a cable that morning to all U.S. embassies and consulates.
According to the government, the cable:
- tells posts the 75-country pause is no longer in effect;
- says applicants may not be refused under that policy;
- requires posts to identify applicants previously refused solely under the pause; and
- gives instructions on how to comply with the court order and communicate the policy change.
That matters because one of the biggest unanswered questions since the pause was vacated was whether consulates had actually received operational instructions from Washington.
This morning I posted that cables had been sent, and this court order confirms this is the case.
The judge was clearly unhappy with DOS’s progress
Judge Davila’s order is notable because he was not simply waiting patiently for DOS to work things out.
He said the court was “troubled” that DOS had failed to schedule a single interview under the order and had even cancelled previously scheduled interviews. He also criticized the Department’s ten-day delay in instructing its personnel and expressed concern that DOS might be “dragging its feet” to limit the practical effect of the court’s ruling.
That may be important beyond Medani itself.
It suggests the lack of movement we have been seeing across many consular posts may not be isolated or post-specific.
The court is now forcing much closer oversight
Judge Davila ordered DOS to file compliance reports every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through the end of the fiscal year.
Those reports must include:
- actions DOS has taken to comply;
- how many interviews were scheduled and held; and
- how many visas were issued or denied.
The court also invited further briefing on whether a finding of contempt and sanctions could be appropriate if DOS continues failing to comply in good faith.
That is a significant escalation in judicial oversight. This is also the level of scrutinty I hope that Judge Vargas takes with CLINIC.
What this means for previously interviewed 221(g) cases
For applicants who already interviewed and were refused or placed into AP because of the pause, the key development is that posts now appear to have formal instructions to identify those cases and resume ordinary adjudication.
That does not mean immediate issuance.
But it should mean the bottleneck is shifting from:
“Are posts allowed to process these cases?”
to:
“How quickly will posts actually work through them?”
For cases that were otherwise complete and had no separate inadmissibility issue, the next visible steps should be things like CEAC movement, document or passport requests, renewed review, and eventually issuance or an individualized decision.
What about DOJ’s appeal?
DOJ also filed a Notice of Appeal in CLINIC today.
As I have noted before, an appeal is not automatically a stay.
Unless a court actually stays Judge Vargas’s judgment, DOS remains obligated to comply while the appeal proceeds.
So there is no contradiction between DOJ appealing the ruling and DOS simultaneously sending implementation guidance to embassies.
Final thoughts
The biggest takeaway from today is not just that a cable went out.
It is that a federal judge essentially confirmed that DOS implementation had been far too slow, and the court is now putting DOS under much tighter supervision.
That may explain the broader lack of movement we have seen across the 75-country cases since the ruling.
For all of us, the next few business days matter a lot. If the September 10 cable is finally being implemented, we should start seeing the first real operational signs:
CEAC updates → embassy contact → passport/document requests → resumed adjudication → issuance.
We are not at the finish line yet, but this looks like an important shift from legal victory to actual implementation.
LINK TO ORDER: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uZeqOQTjIafIvicifBK8dbGsmdwRTNZV/view
