Immigration advocates pressed a federal appeals court Sept. 3 to reinstate injunctions against the Trump administration’s indefinite suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth District Court of Appeals in Seattle heard oral arguments that failure to reimpose lower-court blocks will result in immeasurable suffering to tens of thousands of refugees in the U.S. and around the world.

“Our argument in front of the court today was clear: This illegal and indefinite suspension continues to cause daily, irreparable harm and the injunctions should be given full force immediately,” said Linda Evarts, senior supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Program.

IRAP filed Pacito v. Trump in February challenging President Donald Trump’s Day One executive order suspending refugee admissions indefinitely and freezing domestic resettlement funding. Democracy Forward filed an amicus brief in the case.

The administration appealed to the Ninth Circuit after U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington froze portions of the president’s order. Revised injunctions subsequently allowed the resettlement of 70 refugees whose approvals and travel plans had been finalized before Jan. 20.

But the White House objected to the revised framework and in May the appellate court placed a stay on allowing pre-approved refugees to resettle in the U.S. as it considered the case.

At stake is the validity of the Refugee Act of 1980, which established the nation’s resettlement program and allowed presidents to set annual admissions levels.

The government has emphasized Trump’s action is merely a suspension of admissions pending further review and that close to 100 white South Africans have been admitted so far in 2025. Reuters reported last month the administration is considering a cap of 40,000 refugee admissions annually, with an emphasis on Afrikaners.

Mark Hetfield

By comparison, the U.S. admitted more than 100,000 refugees in 2024, 60,050 in 2023 and 25,520 in 2022, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Admissions reached the post-2001 peak of almost 85,000 in 2016 before plunging during Trump’s first presidency, reaching a low point of 11,814 admissions in 2020.

And the president has picked up right where he left off, said Mark Hetfield, president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

“Donald Trump shows contempt for the laws of our country.”

“On his very first day in office, Donald Trump slammed the door shut in the face of over 125,000 refugees who, after fleeing for their lives, stood in line, followed all the rules and were approved by the Department of Homeland Security for resettlement to the United States,” Hetfield said in reference to the 125,000 admissions cap President Joe Biden set before leaving office.

“Refugee resettlement is an immigration program established by law for people who have been forced to flee their home countries because they face persecution simply by being who they are. Donald Trump shows contempt for the laws of our country,” Hetfield said.

The lawsuit is a reminder of the moral obligation that people of faith must care for those who are in danger, said Susan Goldberg, founding rabbi of Nefesh, a Jewish spiritual community serving the Eastside communities of Los Angeles.

“The most repeated commandment inside the Hebrew Bible, that then becomes sacred for many traditions, is to take care of the stranger, to take care of those who are traveling,” she said. “And whether or not you are religious or spiritual, we know it in the deepest part of ourselves that when somebody is in need of help, we help them.”

 

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