The Trump administration’s attempt to prevent new American citizens from receiving help on voter registration was blocked in federal court Monday. U.S. District Judge Adam B. Abelson paused a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy from last August preventing nonpartisan groups from helping new citizens register to vote. Under the policy, only state and local election officials were allowed to offer help with voter registration at citizenship ceremonies, prompting the League of Women Voters and National Council of Jewish Women (NJCW) to sue the government over it. “NCJW has amply shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim that the Ban was motivated by discriminatory intent,” Abelson wrote in his ruling. “The various statements by government officials leading up to the Ban that NCJW cites further support this conclusion, including USCIS Director Joseph Edlow’s statement that immigrants threaten to reshape the nation electorally by becoming citizens.”Abelson also cited Edlow’s comments to right-wing website Breitbart last year, in which he claimed that Democrats’ “long-term plan, I think we have to assume, was to grant some sort of mass amnesty, make them all citizens, and then spread them out to try to change demographics elsewhere throughout the country.” The ruling restores the agency’s previous policy, where nonpartisan organizations are allowed to help with voter registration when state and local election officials aren’t able to attend naturalization ceremonies. It’s a policy that was in place for decades until 2025, including during Trump’s first term, and thousands of new voters have benefited. In 2024, the League of Women Voters helped to register over 122,000 new voters at naturalization ceremonies. Abelson’s ruling is not final, but only pauses USCIS’s policy while it gets a full review in federal court. The government’s own words won’t help its case, considering that many administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have echoed statements alluding to the white nationalist “great replacement” theory that liberals and the left seek to replace a white electorate with nonwhite immigrants. For now, though, new citizens should have an easier time registering to vote.