WASHINGTON: A federal judge in Seattle partially blocked US
President Donald Trump’s newest restrictions on refugee admissions on
Saturday, the latest legal defeat for his efforts to curtail immigration
and travel to the United States.
The decision by US
District Judge James Robart is the first judicial curb on rules the
Trump administration put into place in late October that have
contributed significantly to a precipitous drop in the number of
refugees being admitted into the country.
Refugees and
groups that assist them argued in court that the administration’s
policies violated the Constitution and federal rulemaking procedures,
among other claims. Department of Justice attorneys argued in part that
US law grants the executive branch the authority to limit refugee
admissions in the way that it had done so.
On Oct 24, the
Trump administration effectively paused refugee admissions from 11
countries mostly in the Middle East and Africa, pending a 90-day
security review, which was set to expire in late January.
The
countries subject to the review are Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali,
North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. For each of
the last three years, refugees from the 11 countries made up more than
40 per cent of US admissions. A review of State Department data showed
that as the review went into effect, refugee admissions from the 11
countries plummeted.
Robart ruled that the administration
could carry out the security review, but that it could not stop
processing or admitting refugees from the 11 countries in the meantime,
as long as those refugees have a “bona fide” connection to the United
States.
As part of its new restrictions, the Trump
administration had also paused a program that allowed for family
reunification for refugees, pending further security screening
procedures being put into place.
Robart ordered the
government to re-start the programme, known as “follow-to-join”.
Approximately 2,000 refugees were admitted into the United States in
fiscal year 2015 under the programme, according to Department of
Homeland Security data. Refugee advocacy groups praised Robart’s
decision.
“This ruling brings relief to thousands of
refugees in precarious situations in the Middle East and East Africa, as
well as to refugees already in the US who are trying to reunite with
their spouses and children,” said Mariko Hirose, litigation director for
the International Refugee Assistance Project, one of the plaintiffs in
the case.
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Lauren
Ehrsam, said the department disagrees with Robart’s ruling and is
“currently evaluating the next steps”.
Robart, who was
appointed to the bench by Republican former President George W. Bush,
emerged from relative obscurity in February, when he issued a temporary
order to lift the first version of Trump’s travel ban.
On
Twitter, Trump called him a “so-called judge” whose “ridiculous”
opinion “essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country”.
Robart’s
ruling represented the second legal defeat in two days for the Trump
administration. On Friday, a US appeals court said Trump’s travel ban
targeting six Muslim-majority countries should not be applied to people
with strong US ties, but said its ruling would be put on hold pending a
decision by the US Supreme Court.