Trump administration sued over refugee policy changes

Advocacy groups are suing the Trump administration over three policies they say have left refugees in “legal limbo” by blocking them from obtaining green cards and speeding up the process for terminating their lawful status.

The class action lawsuit , filed Monday in Massachusetts, accuses the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of violating federal immigration law by launching “coordinated attacks” against refugees who have resettled in the U.S. and already been vetted.

“This lawsuit challenges these actions, which, taken together, keep refugees from obtaining lawful permanent residency—a status to which they are statutorily entitled—and place them at risk of termination of their refugee status with no meaningful opportunity to be heard,” the complaint states.

The Trump administration ordered immigration officers in November to re-vet all refugees who were admitted under the Biden administration, placing an indefinite hold on all pending green card applications.

The lawsuit blasted the reinterview process as a “baseless fishing expedition,” noting refugees are among the most thoroughly screened and vetted immigrants who come to the country.

Earlier this month, the DHS also adopted a new rule that shortens the window for a refugee to appeal the proposed termination of their status from 30 to 10 days. The rule cites the need to “restore integrity to the immigration system,” protect national security and prevent fraud as the rationale for speeding up the process.

But the lawsuit argues that the cut doesn’t leave refugees enough time to challenge the revocation of their status, stripping them of constitutional due process rights.

“These actions are the latest in a systematic effort to implement policies that are hostile to refugees, with the end goal of terminating their refugee status and expelling refugees en masse,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote.

The Hill has reached out to the USCIS for comment.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of refugee advocacy organizations and four individual refugees from Afghanistan, Colombia, Ethiopia and Iraq who say their applications for lawful permanent status are still pending.

It asks a federal judge to block the policies from being enforced while the broader legal challenge plays out, including an immediate pause to the new refugee status rule.

“These are people who fled persecution, underwent years of rigorous vetting, and have built lives, families, and communities in the United States,” said Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, in a statement. Democracy Forward is one of the groups representing the plaintiffs.

Since President Trump returned to the White House, the administration has sought to drastically reduce the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. by overhauling the federal refugee program.

It has proposed a cap of 17,500 people for the coming year under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which the president argues should be primarily reserved for white South Africans.