A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked an executive order that President Trump signed shortly after he was sworn in that suspended a decades-old program admitting thousands of refugees into the United States each year.
Judge Jamal N. Whitehead of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington issued a preliminary injunction that ordered the government to effectively restore both the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and funding to refugee assistance organizations while the court considered the merits of a lawsuit to block Mr. Trump’s order.
Judge Whitehead said it appeared likely that the Trump administration had exceeded its lawful authority by suspending a program that Congress established by law in 1980. More than 3 million refugees have been admitted to the United States under the program.
The plaintiffs’ argument that the White House’s order was an “effective nullification of congressional will” was likely to prevail, Judge Whitehead, who was nominated by former President Joseph R. Biden, said in ruling from the bench.
Laurie Ball Cooper, vice president for U.S. legal programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project, a nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the president’s discretion was not limitless. “The refugee ban is illegal and must be stopped,” she said.
Spokesmen for the White House and the Justice Department did not immediately return requests for comment.