- The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing the suspension of new refugee applicants. The ruling stipulated that the U.S. permit individuals conditionally accepted into the country before President Donald Trump issued the executive order.
- The new ruling follows a back-and-forth in the courts since President Trump took executive action on immigration back in January.
- The Trump administration estimates that about 600,000 refugees worldwide are waiting to come to the U.S.
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An appeals court has given the Trump administration power to stop approving new refugees from entering the U.S. However, the U.S. must allow people conditionally accepted before the president suspended the refugee admissions system.
What is the history behind this resettlement ruling?
The president halted the Refugee Resettlement Program after taking office in January as part of his executive orders that cracked down on immigration. Trump said that record levels of migrants had taxed the nation’s cities such that they could not absorb large numbers of migrants, refugees in particular.
A federal judge in Seattle blocked that order in February, ruling the U.S. restart the program. He pointed to refugees stranded in dangerous places, families separated from relatives in the U.S. and people who sold their belongings to travel to the U.S. only to have the program canceled.
The Justice Department argued that the president had the authority to issue the executive order on the program for refugees.
This new ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the president does have the power to restrict people from entering the country.
The same ruling said the U.S. must allow refugees conditionally approved before Trump’s order to halt the program to resettle in the U.S.
What is the reaction to the ruling?
An attorney for the International Refugee Assistance Project, Melissa Keaney, told the AP, “We welcome this continued relief for tens of thousands of refugees who will now have the opportunity to restart their lives in the United States.”
Congress created the refugee program in 1980, a form of legal migration in the U.S. for people displaced by war, natural disasters or persecution. It is different from the asylum process.
How many refugees are waiting to get into the US?
The Trump administration estimates that about 600,000 refugees worldwide are waiting to come to the U.S.
