A refugee family has arrived in the U.S. as part of a federal court order requiring the Trump administration to restart the resettlement program in cities across the U.S. – including in Arizona.
President Donald Trump shut down refugee admissions in one of his first executive actions. Aid groups filed a lawsuit to restart the program and included a group of refugees like Plaintiff Pacito — the pseudonym for a 22-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who had his Jan. 22 travel plans canceled as a result of the freeze.
Mevlude Akay Alp is an attorneys with IRAP, one of the groups filing suit. She says Pacito and his family arrived in the U.S. on Friday, but many more still remain in limbo.
“There are still over 100 refugees stuck outside the United States who the court ordered to be processed and admitted immediately back in May,” she said.
Akay Alp says the court ordered the government to process the small group of refugees right away. But, in June, a travel ban enacted by the Trump administration outright blocked U.S. entry for nationals from a dozen countries — government attorneys now argue refugees could be included in that restriction.
The Pacito family’s arrival is good news, but more steps are still needed.
Thousands of other refugees are still awaiting processing under a different court order granted to plaintiffs in February. A federal judge is expected to soon rule on whether the government is upholding those court orders and how the other court battles will impact the case.
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