A federal judge will soon rule whether refugees can be included in a travel ban enacted by the Trump administration that bars nationals from several countries.
President Donald Trump completely shut down refugee admissions and funding just after taking office in January.
Aid groups, sponsors and refugees filed suit, arguing the president doesn’t have the authority to end a program created by Congress.
A federal court ordered the administration to begin processing refugees again while the case progressed, including those whose travel plans had been disrupted by the January freeze.
But in June, Trump’s travel ban completely barred U.S. entry for a dozen nationalities, and partially barred several more.
Attorney Jonathan Hawley, who represents the plaintiffs, said the government has been slow to begin processing again. Now, the ban could impact about two-thirds of the 120 refugees who have been processed and are now awaiting U.S. entry.
“Refugees, as we have discussed previously and as the court has noted, are among the most carefully screened and vetted individuals in the U.S. immigration infrastructure. So refugees are not visa holders, and none of the rational stated in the travel ban could possibly apply,” he said.
Hawley said the word "visa" is mentioned some 60 times in the June 4 proclamation, and he pointed to a section of the document that states that “nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to limit the ability of an individual to seek asylum, refugee status, withholding of removal, or protection under the CAT, consistent with the laws of the United States.”
Government attorneys argued resettlement has restarted but the ban could apply to refugees if they’re outside the U.S.
District Court judge Judge Jamal Whitehead is expected to make a partial ruling later this week.
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In a weeklong series, KJZZ looks at Arizona’s connection to the Japanese internment policies that were instituted following Pearl Harbor, and how it ties into the broader story of racialized public policy. Gabriel Pietrorazio joined The Show for a closer look at the series. -
That includes more than 11,000 non-Mexican deportees, according to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. -
The Pinal County Attorney’s Office announced this week that it’s joining certain violent-crime task forces led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The same deal with the Phoenix Police Department was canceled more than a decade ago. -
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have accused Arizona Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva of “faking outrage” over her protest at an ICE raid west of downtown Tucson last week. -
Long before World War II, the U.S. Army rounded up Native Americans onto reservations — drawing in their new boundaries. And in Arizona, the federal government once again looked to those lands for another minority population — Japanese Americans — also forcibly rounded up by the military after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941.
