SEATTLE — A judge on Thursday rescinded an order that would have required the Trump administration to admit some 12,000 refugees into the United States.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle issued the order earlier this month, following instructions from a federal appeals court that said the government must process refugees who before Jan. 20 already had “arranged and confirmable” travel plans to enter the U.S. That’s the day President Donald Trump took office and suspended the nation’s refugee admissions program.
But last Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clarified the order: Refugees should be admitted on a case-by-case basis, if they could show they had relied on promises from the U.S. before Jan. 20 that they would be able to travel to America.
As an example of who should be admitted, the appeals court noted the case of one plaintiff, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who sold his family’s belongings and gave up the lease on their home because he, his wife and their child were supposed to fly to the U.S. on Jan. 22 before the administration canceled their travel.
In his order Thursday, Whitehead said the government should admit 160 refugees who had plans to come to the U.S. within two weeks of Jan. 20.
“The Government must process, admit, and provide statutorily mandated resettlement support services to these Injunction Protected Refugees immediately,” he wrote.
Thousands of other refugees who had plans to arrive after that would need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, Whitehead said. He said he would appoint a special master to conduct those assessments, and he asked lawyers for refugee assistance groups who brought the lawsuit and the Justice Department to suggest potential candidates for that role.
The refugee program, created by Congress in 1980, is a form of legal migration to the U.S. for people displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution — a process that often takes years and involves significant vetting. It is different from asylum, by which people newly arrived in the U.S. can seek permission to remain because they fear persecution in their home country.
Upon beginning his second term on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending the program.
That triggered a lawsuit by individual refugees whose efforts to resettle in the U.S. have been halted as well as major refugee aid groups, who argued that they have had to lay off staff. The groups said the administration froze their funding for processing refugee applications overseas and providing support, such as short-term rental assistance for those already in the U.S.
Whitehead, a 2023 appointee of former President Joe Biden, blocked enforcement of Trump’s order, saying it amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will” in setting up the nation’s refugee admissions program.
The 9th Circuit Court largely put Whitehead’s decision on hold in March, finding that the administration was likely to win the case given the president’s broad authority to determine who is allowed to enter the country.