A federal judge on Tuesday blocked one of the first actions President Donald Trump took when he came into office, when he issued a Presidential Order suspending the federal refugee program.
In doing so, President Trump appeared to be overriding Congress' authority to resettle refugees even if they are in the US illegally, the judge ruled.
With the program's suspension came the shutdown of federal money flowing to Church World Service, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which had a part in refugee settlement. Those three organizations, among others, joined 9 refugees (including some Iraqis and Afghan citizens) in bringing the lawsuit to a Seattle federal court.
It's not clear whether the organizations that brought the suit will have their refugee funding reinstated, though, because of a ruling in an earlier court case.
President Trump suspended the refugee program on Day One of his 2nd term, in an attempt to end the resettlement of illegal immigrants throughout the US using faith-based organizations such as Church World Service.
The resettlement program was suspended for 90 days while the Trump administration studied the effects of immigration on US procedures and policies to see if the program is actually in the best interests of the Americans.
This lawsuit was filed later, and U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead said following a Tuesday hearing that Trump's suspension amounted to an effective "nullification of congressional will," ruling that the "president has substantial discretion … to suspend refugee admissions," but there is a limit to those powers and in this case a line may have been crossed.
With Tuesday's action, Judge Whitehead effectively blocked Trump's Executive Order until this court case is finished.
However, there was a substantial ruling last week in which another judge refused to return federal funding for refugee programs, in a lawsuit started by Catholic relief organizations.