Jewish group, church organizations sue Trump administration over refugee freeze
HIAS says US president exceeded his authority in executive order suspending all refugee admissions, including some 1,660 Afghans already cleared to resettle
HIAS, a Jewish refugee aid and advocacy group formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, filed suit against US President Donald Trump on Monday over his freeze on refugee admissions.
The lawsuit is a return to the group’s playbook during Trump’s first term, when HIAS took the Trump administration to court over its 2017 travel ban, temporarily delaying its implementation.
This time, HIAS joined with two other refugee resettlement organizations — Church World Service and Lutheran Community Services Northwest — to challenge a Trump executive order indefinitely suspending refugee resettlement, as well as a freeze on funding for refugees.
The legal challenge, filed in federal district court in Seattle by the International Refugee Assistance Project, argues that Trump exceeded his executive authority by abruptly shutting down the program and freezing funding to aid refugees already in the United States.
The lawsuit cites the possibility of serious harm to refugees and calls on the court to “restore the important and historic American tradition of protecting and aiding people fleeing persecution.”
It is formally aimed at Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Acting US Secretary of Health and Human Services Dorothy A. Fink.
Trump immediately paused refugee resettlement after taking office on January 20, in an executive order saying the program must ensure that refugees admitted to the US “appropriately assimilate” and that taxpayer resources are not wasted.
He called for the secretaries of Homeland Security and State to submit a report within 90 days to determine if it should be restarted.
The sudden shutdown — which the complaint called on the court to issue an injunction against, and to declare unlawful and invalid — meant refugees across the globe had their scheduled travel to the US canceled, including 1,660 Afghans already cleared to resettle.
Days later, funds for US groups that assist refugees already in the country were frozen as part of a larger pause on foreign aid, which the lawsuit asserts “has nothing to do with refugee resettlement.”
The lawsuit was brought by nine refugees alongside the US-based organizations, including a family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that was approved to travel to the US on January 22 but had the approval canceled.
The family, which resides in Nairobi, sold all of their belongings except for what could fit in their checked luggage and gave up their lease on their home, the complaint said.
In addition to opposing the suspension of refugee resettlement generally, the lawsuit alleges that the State Department implemented the move a week before it was slated to go into effect.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit also notes that, while the executive order cited influxes of migrants to New York and Massachusetts as a justification, both of the latter states’ declarations of emergency were a result of an influx of asylum seekers, who petition for relief having already crossed the border, not resettled refugees.
In a statement following the filing of the lawsuit Monday, HIAS president Mark Hetfield said, “The American Jewish community owes its very existence to those times when the United States opened its doors to refugees fleeing anti-Semitism and persecution.”
“The American Jewish community knows the heart of the refugees, for we were once refugees ourselves. Today, Trump has even slammed the door in the face of Christians, Jews and Baha’i fleeing Iran, as well as refugees from everywhere else.”
