Trump can suspend refugee admissions, federal court rules

President Donald Trump has the authority to indefinitely suspend admissions of foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States under the  refugee resettlement program, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, backing a key element of his hardline approach toward immigration.

A California-based three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached that conclusion as it overturned most of the injunctions issued by a judge in Seattle last year against Trump’s halt on refugee admissions and related actions.

The 9th Circuit last year allowed Trump’s policy to proceed, pausing most of U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead’s decisions in favor of the plaintiffs while the Justice Department‘s appeal played out.

The Republican president froze refugee resettlement after taking office in January 2025, saying the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, or USRAP, must ensure that refugees admitted to the U.S. “appropriately assimilate.”

His policy prompted a class-action lawsuit by refugees, family members and resettlement organizations.

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, writing on Thursday for the 9th Circuit panel, said the court recognized the “enormous practical implications” of its decision to largely overturn rulings issued in the case by Whitehead.

“There are over one hundred thousand vetted and conditionally approved refugees, many of whom may have spent years completing the USRAP process in a third country only to be turned away on the tarmac,” Bybee wrote.

But Bybee, who like the other appellate judges was appointed by a Republican president, said the result was due to Congress granting the president sweeping powers to suspend entry to immigrants.

“Whether that consequence reflects prudent policy is not a question for this court,” Bybee wrote.

A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement that Thursday’s ruling “reaffirms that activist district court judges cannot usurp the power of the president to protect the American people and set refugee policy for the United States.”

Mevlude Akay Alp, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said in a statement that the ruling “removes the ability for refugees stranded by the refugee ban to be safely resettled, or even have their cases processed, while President Trump’s cruel ban continues.”

While the 9th Circuit panel overturned most of Whitehead’s rulings, it upheld on a 2-1 vote the judge’s injunctions blocking the end of services to already-admitted refugees and the termination of cooperative agreements with resettlement support centers.

U.S. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lee, a Trump appointee, partially dissented, saying he would completely overturn the injunctions by Whitehead, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden.

“District courts cannot stand athwart, yelling ‘stop’ just because they genuinely believe they are the last refuge against policies that they deem to be deeply unwise,” Lee wrote.