Tacoma-based group sues Trump administration for suspending refugee-resettlement program
A Tacoma-based nonprofit that provides resettlement services to refugees in the region sued the Trump administration Monday over the suspension of the U.S. refugee-resettlement program, court records show.
The lawsuit is challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order on Jan. 20 that suspended entry into the country by refugees under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and the administration’s stoppage of federal funding to long-serving refugee organizations, according to the complaint.
“Rather than learn from past mistakes, the Trump Administration has repeated them and engaged in severely harmful and irrational conduct that flouts the rule of law,” the suit said, comparing the suspension to Trump’s 90-day travel ban for several Muslim-majority countries in 2017.
The lawsuit argues that the suspension further endangered vulnerable refugees and it seeks a temporary restraining order and court injunction to “restore the important and historic American tradition of protecting and aiding people fleeing persecution.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit’s claims.
One of a dozen plaintiffs is Lutheran Community Services Northwest, headquartered in Tacoma and an affiliate of a national resettlement agency, according to the complaint. It maintains more than 40 locations across Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and its 700-plus employees serve more than 40,000 clients annually.
The organization has “provided a range of social and family services to low-income communities in the Northwest for decades,” the suit said. The case, which includes 11 other plaintiffs, was filed in U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington.
“We’ve done this work at LCSNW since after World War II, through the Vietnam era, the Afghanistan evacuation, to the present day,” CEO David Duea said in a statement. “We know there will be ebbs and flows. But this is the first time a President has shut down the system without notice, abandoning thousands of families who’d received invitations to start new lives, and thousands who’ve barely had a chance to start. We trust justice will prevail.”
Two other plaintiffs are HIAS, Inc. and Church World Service, Inc. — both refugee-resettlement agencies.
The resettlement centers they administer have been completely defunded, and thousands of employees in the United States and overseas have been furloughed and laid off, according to the suit, adding that LCSNW is facing significant staff layoffs and a loss of vital services as a result of the presidential administration’s actions.
Trump’s executive order last month asserted that continuing to allow refugees into the United States under the USRAP “would be detrimental to” the country’s interests. It cited “record levels” of migration into the United States over the past four years in both small cities and major urban centers.
“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” the order said.
It also noted that increased migration prompted jurisdictions such as New York and Massachusetts to declare recent states of emergency.
The number of refugees admitted into the United States substantially increased under President Joe Biden’s administration after Trump significantly cut back entries during his first term, federal data showed.
More than 60,000 refugees arrived in the country in 2023, surpassing combined totals for the previous two years. Trump’s first administration cut admissions to their lowest level in U.S. history, with 11,450 in 2021, according to a Homeland Security report from November. The subsequent increase under Biden still reflected fewer admissions than occurred between 1990 and 2001 and also during President Barack Obama’s two terms, report data showed.
Priorities in USRAP are given to individuals and groups who are of special humanitarian concern to the United States, according to the report.
Nine of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are either refugees or U.S. citizens seeking to travel to the United States, reunite with family currently outside of the country or sponsor a refugee family. They include an American in Boise attempting to reunite with her daughter in South Africa and a Bellevue woman who is among other would-be sponsors of an Afghan refugee family.
In many of the plaintiffs’ cases, their attorneys claimed that already approved or conditionally approved resettlement efforts were derailed by the program’s suspension.
An Iraqi refugee was scheduled to travel to the United States with his wife and 3-year-old son on Feb. 3, but their trip has since been canceled, according to the suit. The family lives under threat in Iraq due to the man’s “association with the U.S. presence in that country” and because he’s a member of a persecuted ethno-religious minority, the complaint said.
The individual plaintiffs in the suit filed anonymously due to fear of reprisals if their identities were revealed, according to the suit.
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 2:56 PM.
