District Judge Blocks Trump's Refugee Resettlement Pause, Saying It 'Crossed the Line'

“I cannot ignore Congress’ detailed framework for refugee admissions and the limits it placed on the president’s ability to suspend the same,” said Judge Jamal Whitehead.

A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's January executive order that indefinitely suspended refugee admissions into the United States. The order contained no guarantee that refugee resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) would resume—only that the suspension would last until "the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States."

"The president has substantial discretion…to suspend refugee admissions, but that authority is not limitless," U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead said yesterday. "I cannot ignore Congress' detailed framework for refugee admissions and the limits it placed on the president's ability to suspend the same."

The January order, Whitehead concluded, "has crossed the line from permissible discretionary action to effective nullification of congressional will."

Congress established the USRAP via the 1980 Refugee Act. Since then, the program has resettled over 3.3 million refugees in the United States. A refugee under U.S. law is someone who is physically outside the United States, is "of special humanitarian concern to the United States," and has faced or may face persecution "due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group," according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Refugee vetting is rigorous and lengthy; the average case took approximately four years to process as of March 2023, the Migration Policy Institute reported in October.

Trump's order nonetheless warned that the U.S. "lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees," in a way "that protects [Americans'] safety and security." It cited chaos in towns like Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Ohio, as well as big cities like New York City and Chicago, as justification for the order. (Importantly, those places largely experienced significant influxes of other migrants, such as asylum seekers, not the refugees the executive order sought to keep out.)

Several refugee resettlement groups filed suit, arguing that "implementing agencies arbitrarily and without explanation failed to follow even the paltry restraints in the Order." Those agencies "immediately canceled scheduled travel for refugees," the lawsuit says, leaving refugees in limbo. One plaintiff, a man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was scheduled to travel to the U.S. with his family on January 22, "had sold all of the family's possessions and given up their rental house in preparation," explains the suit. "He then learned that their travel was canceled."

A Justice Department lawyer "indicated to the judge that the government might quickly appeal," reported the Associated Press. Courts have blocked several Trump immigration moves, including his order reinterpreting birthright citizenship and the administration's policy to conduct immigration raids in places of worship. However, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., "refused to immediately block the Trump administration's actions" in another lawsuit concerning refugee resettlement "brought by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops," the A.P. noted. "That case faces another hearing Friday."