Court Orders Trump Administration to Admit 12,000 Refugees

Signs are seen as Tshishiku Henry, a former refugee and Washington State Delegate for the Refugee Congress, speaks during a rally outside the U.S District Court after a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's effort to halt the nation's refugee admissions system, Feb. 25, 2025 in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)

People gather outside the U.S. District Court after a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's effort to halt the nation's refugee admissions system Feb. 25, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)

SEATTLE (AP) - A judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to admit some 12,000 refugees into the United States under a court order partially blocking the president's efforts to suspend the nation's refugee admissions program.

The order from U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead followed arguments from the Justice Department and refugee resettlement agencies over how to interpret a federal appeals court ruling that significantly narrowed an earlier decision from Whitehead.

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."

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Admit 12,000 Refugees Following Court Order