The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by major refugee aid groups, who argued that Trump's executive order suspending the federal refugee resettlement program ran afoul of the system Congress created for moving refugees into the U.S. Lawyers for the administration argued that Trump’s order was well within his authority to deny entry to foreigners whose admission to the U.S. “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”.
Trump’s recent order said the refugee program — a form of legal migration to the U.S. — 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.”.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead said in his ruling after the hearing Tuesday that the president’s actions amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will” in setting up the nation’s refugee admissions program.
The plaintiffs include the International Refugee Assistance Project on behalf of Church World Service, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and individual refugees and family members.
A federal judge in Seattle blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to halt the nation’s refugee admissions system Tuesday.
