Judge blocks Trump’s suspension of refugee admissions after suit by Tacoma-based group
A federal judge in Seattle on Feb. 25 granted a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s suspension of the U.S. refugee-resettlement program.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead’s decision temporarily blocked the suspensions of refugees entering into the country under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and federal funding to long-serving refugee organizations, which stemmed from President Donald Trump’s executive order on Jan. 20.
In making his ruling, Whitehead acknowledged that the president had substantial discretion to suspend refugee admissions but said that the power was not unlimited.
The case in U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, was prompted by a lawsuit filed two weeks ago by a dozen individual or organization plaintiffs, including Tacoma-based Lutheran Community Services Northwest. The group, an affiliate of a national resettlement agency, and others argued that shutting down the system was unlawful and endangered vulnerable refugees.
USRAP prioritizes individuals and groups who are of special humanitarian concern to the United States.
The suspension abandoned thousands of families who were on the path to starting new lives and completely defunded resettlement centers, according to plaintiffs. Thousands of federal employees in the country and abroad have been furloughed and LCSNW faced significant staff layoffs and losing vital services, the suit said.
Many of the nine individual plaintiffs were approved or conditionally approved for resettlement in the country before the executive order derailed those efforts, plaintiffs’ attorneys said, including an Iraqi refugee who had been scheduled to travel to the United States with his wife and young son on Feb. 3.
Trump’s executive order asserted that it “would be detrimental” to the country’s interests to continue to admit refugees under USRAP, citing “record levels” of migration over the past four years and the U.S.’s inability to absorb large numbers of migrants in a manner that didn’t compromise available resources for Americans, protected their safety and security and ensured refugees could be assimilated appropriately.
The executive order, which took effect Jan. 27, called for the secretary of Homeland Security to submit a report to Trump within 90 days indicating whether resuming refugee resettlement under USRAP would be in the U.S.’s interests. Subsequent reports would follow every 90 days until Trump “determine(d) that resumption of the USRAP is in the interests of the United States,” the order said.
Justice Department attorney August Flentje argued on Feb. 25 that the president was within his discretion to suspend the program, noting that presidents set the number of refugees allowed in the country each year and could hypothetically set the number to zero.
Flentje, who indicated to Whitehead that the department might seek an emergency appeal of the Feb. 25 ruling, also argued prior to Whitehead’s decision that any relief provided by the court should be limited to only the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“We don’t think there’s irreparable harm made out in the facts in this case,” he said.
Whitehead said he had found that an injunction was necessary to sort out the issues raised in the suit.
As the ruling was read, loud applause broke out in an overflow room at the federal courthouse, where roughly 100 people listened intently to arguments. Outside the courthouse, a similar-sized crowd gathered afterward at a news conference to celebrate the blockage. Some held signs, with messages including “refugees welcome” and “no refugee ban.”
Mark Hetfield, the president of plaintiff HIAS, Inc., a faith-based national resettlement agency, praised the Feb. 25 decision while addressing the crowd.
“This was not merely a suspension like President Trump attempted to do in 2017,” Hetfield said, “this time he went so far as to try to illegally dismantle the refugee program without authorization from Congress.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM.
