Judge says Trump administration can’t use travel ban to keep 80 refugees out of the U.S.

A federal judge barred the Trump administration from using its ban on travelers from some countries to keep 80 already-vetted refugees from entering the United States.

In a decision late Monday, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle said President Trump’s June order banning the entry of people from 12 countries “expressly states” that it does not limit the ability of people to seek refugee status.

“In other words, by its plain terms, the Proclamation excludes refugees from its scope,” the judge wrote.

Barring refugees from entering the U.S. would limit their ability to seek refugee status and therefore run counter to the Republican president’s order, the judge said.

He ordered the administration to immediately resume processing 80 “presumptively protected refugees” that were rejected based on the travel ban.

The State Department did not immediately have comment Tuesday.

Whitehead also set out a framework for the government to vet refugees from the countries covered by the travel ban and other countries who were denied entry when the president suspended the nation’s refugee admissions program within hours of taking office on Jan. 20.

The decision left thousands of refugees who had already gone through a sometimes years-long vetting process to start new lives in America stranded at various locations around the world, including relatives of active-duty U.S. military personnel and more than 1,600 Afghans who assisted America’s war efforts.

Some individual refugees sued, along with refugee aid organizations who said the administration froze their funding. They later asked the judge to make the case a class-action lawsuit so that the rulings could apply to other refugees facing similar circumstances.

In May, Whitehead said the suspension likely amounted to a nullification of congressional will, since Congress created and funded the refugee admissions program. He issued a preliminary injunction in February barring the federal government from suspending refugee processing and refugee aid funding.

But the 9th U.S. Circuit put most of that decision on hold in March, finding the administration was likely to win the case because the president has broad authority to determine who is allowed to enter the country.

Boone and Thanawala write for the Associated Press.