March 5 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Thursday ruled that President Donald Trump had the authority to indefinitely suspend admissions of foreign citizens seeking to enter the United States under the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached that conclusion as it largely overturned injunctions issued by a judge in Seattle last year that blocked the halt on refugee admissions and related actions.
Trump, a Republican, had immediately paused refugee resettlement after taking office in January 2025, saying the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program must ensure refugees admitted to the U.S. “appropriately assimilate.” A class-action lawsuit by refugees, family members and resettlement organizations followed.
Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, writing for the panel, said the court recognized the “enormous practical implications” of its decision to largely overturn rulings issued in that case by U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, whose decisions in the plaintiffs’ favor were mostly paused while the appeal proceeded.
“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.
Mevlude Akay Alp, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the International Refugee Assistance Project, in a statement said 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.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
While the court largely overturned Whitehead’s rulings, it upheld on a 2-1 vote 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 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,” he wrote.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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