District Judge Blocks Trump’s Refugee Resettlement Pause, Saying It ‘Crossed the Line’
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s January executive order that indefinitely suspended refugee admissions into the United States. The order contained no guarantee that refugee resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) would resume—only that the suspension would last until “the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
“The president has substantial discretion…to suspend refugee admissions, but that authority is not limitless,” U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead said yesterday. “I cannot ignore Congress’ detailed framework for refugee admissions and the limits it placed on the president’s ability to suspend the same.”
The January order, Whitehead concluded, “has crossed the line from permissible discretionary action to effective nullification of congressional will.”
Congress established the USRAP via the 1980 Refugee Act. Since then, the program has resettled over 3.3 million refugees in the United States. A refugee under U.S. law is someone who is physically outside the United States, is “of special humanitarian concern to the United States,” and has faced or may face persecution “due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Refugee vetting is rigorous and lengthy; the average case took approximately four years to process as of March 2023, the Migration Policy Institute rep
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