Judge Rules U.S. Government Must Process 12,000 Refugees

A judge has ruled that the U.S. government must process and provide resettlement support to approximately 12,000 refugees who were conditionally approved for resettlement before January 20, 2025.

The lawsuit, filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), challenged the Trump administration's suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. IRAP filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Church World Service, HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and nine individuals.

In the recent Pacito v. Trump ruling, the court rejected the Trump administration's appeal to impose a limitation on who could remain protected as "'interpretive jiggerypokery' of the highest order...It requires not just reading between the lines, but hallucinating new text that simply is not there." Read the full order here.