A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to admit about 12,000 refugees entered the U.S. on Monday, causing legal setbacks to its broader efforts to reshape U.S. immigration policies.
The ruling spelled out a previous Court of Appeals ruling that allowed the government to temporarily suspend the refugee enrollment program, but required individuals to have granted refugee status and approved travel to the United States.
In a recent court hearing, the government argued that only 160 refugees planned to arrive at the refugee system within two weeks of January’s executive order. But U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead firmly rejected the explanation.
“The government’s interpretation is the ‘explanatory beating-challenge’ of the highest order,” Justice Whitehead wrote in his ruling. “It requires not only reading between lines, but also hallucinations, and these new texts do not exist at all.”
Whitehead initially blocked the executive order in February, finding it could have violated the 1980 Refugee Act. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his ruling in March, allowing the plan to be suspended – with some exceptions.
“If the Ninth Circuit intends to impose a two-week limit, this will reduce the protected population from about 12,000 to 160 people – which will do it explicitly,” Whitehead said in his ruling on Monday. “The court will not entertain the government’s results-oriented judicial orders clearly state the judicial orders.”
The lawsuit was filed by several refugee resettlement organizations, including HIAS (Jewish Nonprofit), Church World Service and Lutheran Community Service, as well as many individual plaintiffs. They argue that many refugees have sold their property and prepared for their trip, but have been stranded by government orders.
Resettlement has traditionally been one of the few legal avenues for U.S. citizenship and has been expanded under former President Joe Biden to include individuals affected by climate change. By contrast, Trump advocated a drastic reduction in immigration and oversaw high-profile deportations, including military-led repatriation flights to Latin America.
The latest ruling could reopen the doors for thousands of displaced people to continue their journey to the United States.
