A federal judge on Monday issued a ruling requiring the Trump administration to immediately resettle about 12,000 refugees.
US District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a Biden appointee, issued the ruling that partly blocks President Donald Trump’s executive order to terminate the refugee admissions program, according to Fox News.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a 2023 appointee of former President Joe Biden, issued the order despite the Trump administration saying during a hearing last week that it should only have to process 160 refugees into the country and would likely appeal any order requiring thousands to be admitted.
"This Court will not entertain the Government’s result-oriented rewriting of a judicial order that clearly says what it says," Whitehead wrote Monday. "The Government is free, of course, to seek further clarification from the Ninth Circuit. But the Government is not free to disobey statutory and constitutional law — and the direct orders of this Court and the Ninth Circuit — while it seeks such clarification."
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office suspending refugee resettlement and ordering the Department of Homeland Security to report back in 90 days on whether resuming resettlement would be in the interests of the U.S.
District Court Judge Jamal Whitehead, a Biden appointee, has *ordered* the Trump Administration to permanently settle 12,000 refugees in the United States.
— TimOnPoint (@TimOnPoint) May 7, 2025
What you are witnessing is the deliberate destruction of the Judiciary.
Blame Congress first - all bark, no bite. pic.twitter.com/gPBGgMV3aQ
Judge Whitehead also blocked a Trump administration effort to suspend refugee admissions into the country back in February, Fox News reported. He argued that the president’s initiatives were an “effective nullification of congressional will.”
The White House previously argued that it should only have to admit 160 refugees and indicated it would challenge any order requiring it to admit more. From The Associated Press:
During a hearing last week, the administration said it should only have to process 160 refugees into the country and that it would likely appeal any order requiring it to admit thousands. But the judge dismissed the government’s analysis, saying it required “not just reading between the lines” of the 9th Circuit’s ruling, “but hallucinating new text that simply is not there.”
“This Court will not entertain the Government’s result-oriented rewriting of a judicial order that clearly says what it says,” Whitehead wrote Monday. “The Government is free, of course, to seek further clarification from the Ninth Circuit. But the Government is not free to disobey statutory and constitutional law — and the direct orders of this Court and the Ninth Circuit — while it seeks such clarification.”
Congress created the refugee program in 1980. It was aimed at taking in people who face persecution or were displaced by war or natural disasters.
Given the administration’s past statements, it appears likely that it will appeal this ruling.