Judge Block Trump's Suspension of Refugee System

A federal judge in Seattle blocked President Donald Trump's suspension of the nation's refugee admissions system on Tuesday, saying 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 ruling came in a lawsuit brought by individual refugees whose efforts to resettle in the US have been halted as well as major refugee aid groups, who argued that 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, the AP reports.

• US District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a 2023 Biden appointee, said Trump's actions amounted to an "effective nullification of congressional will" in setting up the nation's refugee admissions program. 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 said. "But that authority is not limitless."
• Justice Department lawyer August Flentje indicated that the government might quickly appeal. Trump's recent order said the refugee program would be suspended because cities and communities had been taxed by "record levels of migration" and didn't have the ability to "absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees."

• Flentje insisted the order was well within Trump's authority, citing a law that allows the president to deny entry to foreigners whose admission to the U.S. "would be detrimental to the interests of the United States."
• Flentje also 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, but 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 canceled. I have spouses and children separated indefinitely from their family members in the US, resettlement agencies that have already laid off hundreds of staff. Aren't these textbook examples of harms that can't be undone by money damages?"

(More refugees stories.)