A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to admit approximately 12,000 more refugees into the nation, rejecting the White House’s contention that accepted migrants might be turned away if they did not arrive in the United States by early February.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed that a previous court order required the government to accept only roughly 160 refugees en route to the United States by February 3, but U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead rejected that view.
“It requires not just reading between the lines, but hallucinating new text that simply is not there,” the author wrote on Monday. “It is surprising that there could be any disagreement about the meaning of a judicial order that articulates three specific criteria in plain, straightforward language.”
Faith-based refugee relief organizations filed a lawsuit in February after President Trump signed an executive order indefinitely suspending the United States Refugee Assistance Program (USRAP), which was established by Congress in 1980 to assist persons fleeing persecution, conflict, or natural disasters in their native countries.
USRAP is more stringent than the asylum procedure used by thousands of migrants to cross the United States’ borders, and applicants can wait years for acceptance.
The initial complaint claimed that Trump’s order was illegal because it circumvented Congress, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the president has extensive jurisdiction over who is permitted to enter the nation. However, it authorized the federal government to continue processing previously approved refugees who had “arranged and confirmable travel plans to the United States” when Trump signed his Jan. 20 executive order suspending the program.
The DOJ established a two-week deadline from that date for refugees to fly to the United States, but refugee aid organizations claimed that arrangements needed to be made rather than immediately started. Whitehead agreed on Monday.
“Had the Ninth Circuit intended to impose a two-week limitation — one that would reduce the protected population from about 12,000 to 160 individuals — it would have done so explicitly,” the court’s ruling read.