Seattle judge blocks Trump’s executive order suspending refugee admissions

A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s halt of the country’s refugee resettlement program and freezing of funding for agencies that support refugees. 

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead swiftly granted a preliminary injunction, which blocks Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide and directs agencies to lift the federal funds suspension until the court case ends, or until it is overruled by a higher court.

The relief was warranted, Whitehead said, because the plaintiffs are likely to show the president’s executive order “has crossed the line from permissible discretionary action to effective nullification of congressional will.”

Presidents have “substantial discretion” to suspend refugee admissions, Whitehead said to a full courtroom and overflow room in downtown Seattle.

“But that authority is not limitless,” he said.

Following the bench ruling, Department of Justice attorney August Flentje indicated in court the federal government plans to file an emergency appeal.

Trump halted the country’s refugee resettlement program on his first day in office as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration, barring refugees from coming into the country and halting refugee application processing indefinitely.

In his order, he stated the entry of refugees under the program is “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” Federal funding for resettlement agencies was also frozen later that week.

Thousands of refugees who had already been cleared to resettle in the U.S. after fleeing war or persecution in their home countries — many with plane tickets in hand — were suddenly stranded abroad and left in limbo when the ban was announced. 

After the State Department issued stop-work orders, resettlement agencies have scrambled to pay for basic necessities for those already in the country, and been forced to lay off staff members to stay afloat.

Trump’s executive order and its implementation have been “catastrophic” for refugees and the resettlement agencies that serve them, said Deepa Alagesan, an attorney with International Refugee Assistance Project, which is representing the plaintiffs.

“The judge really recognized the gravity of the situation, and the harm that people and organizations are suffering every day,” Alagesan said.

Lutheran Community Services Northwest, a Tacoma-based resettlement agency, was one of three faith-based agencies that sued Feb. 10 to challenge the program’s freeze and to restore federal funding. 

The 370 refugees the agency has resettled since October, including some just days before Trump’s second inauguration, have since seen support for rent and case management services cut, said CEO David Duea.

National resettlement agencies Church World Service and HIAS, a Jewish American group aiding refugees and potential refugees, are also plaintiffs in the suit, as well as nine people impacted by the refugee ban and halt of federal funding.

The lead plaintiff, referred to by the pseudonym Pacito, is a 22-year-old refugee from Congo who was approved to travel with his wife and baby but saw their Jan. 22 flight canceled after Trump’s executive order. 

The family, who currently live in Kenya, had sold nearly all their possessions and ended a rental lease in preparation for the move. The family is “devastated” by the travel cancellation, the lawsuit stated.

“They are struggling to find stable housing and employment, particularly since the plaintiff no longer has the equipment required to continue his work as a music producer,” the lawsuit said.

During the roughly hourlong hearing Tuesday, Whitehead peppered Department of Justice attorney Flentje with questions, such as the scope of the president’s authority and whether the federal government’s actions caused “textbook examples of harms that can’t be undone with money damages.” 

Flentje described the funding pause as a “contract dispute” that does not constitute irreparable harm for resettlement agencies, and argued any relief should be restricted to only the individual plaintiffs rather than all impacted refugees. 

The president has the power to set the number of refugees admitted each year under the Refugee Act of 1980, he added, as well as “ample authority” to suspend entries under a 2018 Supreme Court ruling upholding Trump’s ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries. 

Whitehead, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2023, did not find the argument compelling. He said the federal government’s implementation of Trump’s order “likely violates bedrock principles of administrative law.”

The lawsuit and recent ruling is a rehash of similar legal battles that played out in Seattle in 2017, when the first Trump administration temporarily halted the country’s refugee resettlement program. That order did not suspend federal funding for agencies.

Then-Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued the Trump administration, and a Seattle federal judge granted a temporary restraining order in that case. The ACLU of Washington also filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the ban.

The blanket refugee ban was ultimately lifted, but the first Trump administration significantly restricted the number of refugees admitted and continued to target refugees from Muslim-majority countries. By the end of his first term, he had capped the number of refugees admitted to 15,000, the lowest number in the more than 40-year history of the program. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also sued in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 18 to release suddenly halted refugee resettlement funds. Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden last week denied the request for a temporary restraining order. 

Refugees must prove they face persecution in their home countries and are among the most vetted immigrants into the United States. The process often takes years, including interviews, background checks, health screenings and more.

Refugees are distinct from people crossing the border seeking asylum. Refugees must be living outside the U.S. to be considered for resettlement and are usually referred to the U.S. State Department by the United Nations. Asylum-seeking, a human right protected under U.S. law for decades, was also sharply curtailed by the Trump administration during his first week back in office.

Emillie Binja arrived in the U.S. as a refugee through Lutheran Community Services Northwest the day before Trump’s first inauguration after spending more than 16 years in Uganda going through the grueling refugee admissions program. 

She was 8 years old in 2000 when her family fled Congo, where her uncle and mother had been human rights activists. Her uncle died before his refugee application was approved, she said. 

“I don’t think people actually understand what people have gone through all those years,” said Binja, who today serves as the pastor at Creator Lutheran Church in Oregon and has become a U.S. citizen. “You have dreams, education forgone. Sometimes people don’t have places to sleep.” 

“To actually have your trip canceled after waiting all those years is so, so hard,” Binja said after the ruling. “So this is a great win.”  

Material from The Seattle Times archives was used in this report.