Things to know about ruling blocking Trump’s refugee ban

The refugee programme, created by Congress in 1980, is a form of legal migration to the US for people displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution — a process that often takes years and involves significant vetting

Seattle: President Donald Trump’s effort to suspend the system for resettling refugees in the US is on hold after a federal judge in Seattle blocked it. US District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a 2023 appointee of former President Joe Biden, found that while the president has broad authority over who comes into the country, he cannot nullify the law passed by Congress establishing the program.

The Justice Department indicated it would consider a quick appeal, saying Trump’s actions have been well within his authority.

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Here’s what to know about the case.

What is this lawsuit about?

Trump halted the nation’s refugee resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration, saying cities had been taxed by “record levels of migration” and couldn’t “absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees”.

He barred refugees from coming to the US, and the administration began cutting off funding for agencies that support refugees.

The refugee program, created by Congress in 1980, is a form of legal migration to the US for people displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution — a process that often takes years and involves significant vetting.

It is different from asylum, by which people newly arrived in the US can seek permission to remain because they fear persecution in their home country.

Despite long-standing support from both parties for accepting refugees, the program has become politicized in recent years. Trump also temporarily halted it during his first term, and then dramatically decreased the number of refugees who could enter the US each year.

There are 600,000 people being processed to come to the US as refugees around the world, according to the administration.

Refugee aid groups challenging Trump

The lawsuit filed in Seattle was brought by individual refugees whose efforts to resettle in the US have been halted as well as major refugee aid groups.

Those organisations include International Refugee Assistance Project on behalf of Church World Service, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency HIAS and Lutheran Community Services Northwest. They say they have had to lay off staff because the administration froze funding for processing refugee applications overseas as well as support, such as short-term rental assistance for those already in the US.

“We resettled people days before the inauguration that were just cut off from benefits,” said Lutheran Community Services Northwest CEO David Duea said after Tuesday’s hearing. “That means rent, helping kids get into school, and case management. It was an inhumane act.” Justice Department lawyer August Flentje disputed the notion that the plaintiffs had suffered the sort of “irreparable” harms that would warrant granting a broad order blocking the administration’s actions.

Most people whose travel to the US was cancelled at the last minute had already been moved to a third country where they were out of danger, he said, and the cancellation of funding for refugee aid groups amounted to a contract dispute. The judge disagreed.

“I’ve read the declarations,” Whitehead said. “I have refugees stranded in dangerous places. I have families who have sold everything they’ve owned in advance of travel, which was cancelled. I have spouses and children separated indefinitely from their family members in the US, resettlement agencies that have already laid off hundreds of staff.” Last week, a federal judge in Washington, DC, refused to immediately block the Trump administration’s actions in a similar lawsuit brought by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. That case faces another hearing Friday.

The judge said the President’s authority is broad, not limitless During Tuesday’s arguments, Flentje cited a law that allows the President to deny entry to foreigners whose admission to the US “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States”.

But Whitehead determined the President’s actions amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will” in setting up the nation’s refugee admissions programme. He promised to offer a fuller rationale in a written opinion in the next few days.

“The President has substantial discretion … to suspend refugee admissions,” Whitehead told the parties. “But that authority is not limitless.”

An appeal is expected

Flentje indicated the government might file an “emergency appeal” to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, a motion that would be considered on an expedited basis. He also asked the Whitehead to pause his ruling pending an appeal, but Whitehead called that request premature since he had not yet issued his written decision.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they expected Whitehead’s ruling to clear the way for money to begin flowing again to the organisations and for plaintiffs stranded overseas to be able to book new trips to the US, though it remained unclear whether any appeal might complicate that.

Outside the courthouse Tuesday, the organizations and their supporters celebrated the ruling, describing refugees as a blessing to the country.

Tshishiku Henry, an activist who works on behalf of refugees in Washington state, called his presence “the miracle of the second chance.” He and his wife resettled in the US in 2018 after fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said.

“It was a lifeline,” Henry said. “You didn’t offer us just safety, but you gave us back our future.”