Ninety days after judge’s order, Trump administration has failed to restart refugee program

In late February, US District Judge Jamal Whitehead ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting refugees cleared under the federal refugee admissions program, which President Donald Trump froze by executive order on the first day of his second term.

In a lengthy ruling siding with the plaintiffs, which included a trio of faith-based groups that help resettle refugees, the judge spelled out his reasons for granting a preliminary injunction, arguing “the record shows concrete and severe harms to the individual and organizational plaintiffs flowing directly from” the administration’s decision to freeze the program.

“These harms are mostly irreversible and warrant immediate intervention to stop more harm from befalling Plaintiffs,” Whitehead added.