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Judge Jamal Whitehead, Biden Appointee, Orders Trump Administration to Admit 12,000 Refugees

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Updated May 8, 2025, 08:08 AM

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to admit approximately 12,000 refugees into the United States, partially blocking the president's efforts to suspend the nation's refugee admissions program. U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a Biden appointee, issued the order after rejecting the administration's argument that it should only process 160 refugees, calling their interpretation 'interpretive jiggery-pokery' and 'hallucinating new text'. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by refugee resettlement organizations, including HIAS, Church World Service, and Lutheran Community Services Northwest, along with several individuals. These groups argued that many refugees were left in limbo after Trump's January executive order halted the program, with some having sold their possessions and made travel arrangements. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously allowed the administration to suspend refugee admissions but specified that individuals already granted refugee status with 'arranged and confirmable' travel plans should not be blocked. Judge Whitehead's decision interprets this to include the 12,000 refugees, rejecting the government's narrower interpretation that only applied to those scheduled to travel within two weeks of the executive order. He emphasized that the government cannot disobey 'statutory and constitutional law' and engage in 'result-oriented rewriting' of judicial orders.

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