Refugee advocates win lawsuit against Trump order that left many families divided
A federal appeals court ruled against a Trump administration executive order that effectively barred refugees from living in certain areas, a decision that immigration advocates are hailing as a potential first step in rebuilding the country’s resettlement program.
The decision — which was issued by U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland on Friday — is considered a victory for refugee activists after four years of Trump administration policies that have made it more difficult to resettle refugees.
“Our main priority now is ramping up refugee resettlement numbers again,” said Timothy Young, a spokesperson for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit. “With the incoming Biden administration, we don’t see that being an issue. However, it will take work — lots of work.”
The court ruling comes two years after President Donald Trump signed an order requiring resettlement agencies to obtain written consent from states in which they plan to receive refugees. Two months later, three faith-based resettlement agencies filed a federal complaint challenging the administration’s move and won a preliminary injunction in January 2020.
The president’s executive order ultimately prevented refugees from being reunited with their U.S.-based families depending on where they lived. The order also prohibited communities from welcoming refugees if their state and local officials rejected them, even if they have longstanding and successful resettlement programs. As of last week’s federal court decision, those orders were undone.
“This ruling provides critical relief,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a resettlement agency that has helped hundreds of thousands of refugees since 1939.
The Miami Herald reached out Monday to the lawsuit’s defendants — the Department of Health of Human Services and the Department of Homeland
Security — but did not receive an immediate response.
In the announcement to reduce how many refugees will be admitted into the United States during the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the administration said it would allow 15,000 (which isbelieved to be an all-time low)— an almost 17% reduction from the previous year’s 18,000 refugee cap, and an 82% cut since Trump took office.
As recently as Nov. 12, during a virtual event with a Catholic group that works with refugees, Presidentelect Joe Biden pledged that he would raise the annual refugee admissions ceiling to 125,000 as soon as he takes office.
But immigration policy experts say restoring and restructuring the refugee system won’t be that easy, noting that accepting a surge of refugees after four years of historically few refugee arrivals would require significant resources, time and political compromise.
“How do you ramp everything up without funding? Most of the programs in Florida were slashed. That’s going to be the biggest issue here,” said Randy McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Legal Services, which provides free legal services for refugees in South Florida. “There were no refugees coming in anymore so there aren’t many services left. What’s key here is who will be appointed to run the Office of Refugee Resettlement.”