Refugees Left Behind Get a Second Chance in Court
A Seattle judge orders the feds to admit refugees whose travel was canceled under Trump’s 2025 ban, calling the administration’s denials unlawful and rushed.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Seattle ruled Monday that the Biden-era travel ban still enforced by the Trump administration cannot be used to bar entry to refugees whose cases meet prior court-established criteria, including some whose travel plans were previously canceled.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead ordered the federal government to admit approximately 80 refugees from countries included in President Donald Trump’s travel ban, and potentially thousands more whose cases were affected in the lead-up to the administration's executive order halting refugee admissions.
The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by refugee resettlement organizations, including Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and individuals like a Bellevue woman who sought to sponsor a refugee family from Afghanistan — one of the countries included in Trump’s ban.
The judge’s ruling follows a prior February decision, when Whitehead determined that Trump’s order likely violated the separation of powers. That decision was partially narrowed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which required that refugees must have had an approved application, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services clearance, and arranged travel at the time Trump issued the ban.
Still, Whitehead’s latest ruling expands protections to refugees whose travel plans were postponed between December 1 and January 20 — prior to Trump taking office — and directs the federal government to identify within a week all refugees meeting the appeals court’s three-part criteria.
The administration must also expedite the entry of unaccompanied refugee children and Afghan nationals currently housed at a U.S.-run processing facility in Qatar.
Trump’s executive order, issued on his first day back in office in January 2025, indefinitely halted all refugee admissions. According to court filings, more than 4,000 refugee cases — comprising upward of 12,000 individuals — may still be eligible for entry under the court’s evolving guidelines.
The Department of Justice has opposed the expanded interpretation. DOJ attorney Joseph McCarter called the plaintiffs' request a “baseless and unrestrained expansion” of the prior appellate ruling.
In a statement following Monday’s order, Lutheran Community Services Northwest said it is “hopeful that in the short term we may be able to welcome a small number of families from the pool of 160 so-called ‘injunction protected’ refugees,” and added that it expects more families to be admitted under Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson’s review of additional cases.