Emergency hearing in Seattle's Trump refugee lawsuit

Emergency hearing held in Seattle lawsuit against Trump's refugee ban

An emergency hearing took place in a Seattle federal court on Tuesday , challenging the Trump administration's refugee ban.

SEATTLE - An emergency hearing was held in Seattle’s federal court on Tuesday in the lawsuit against President Trump’s refugee ban.

The hearing in Pacito v. Trump took place at 1 p.m. PT in the federal courthouse of the Western District of Washington.

The lawsuit challenges the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and the abrupt withholding of millions of dollars in funding for refugee-serving agencies.

What we know:

In court Tuesday, a judge said the timing of the government's decision to terminate the contracts just one day after the court issued a preliminary injunction raises serious concerns on whether the actions were designed to circumvent the court's ruling.

"The court's preliminary injunction did not discuss actual termination of the settlement agency contracts. That just was not the factual circumstances before the court at the time of the preliminary injunction or contained within the pleadings, so it was not part of the record before the court," the judge said. "So the court does not read its injunction so broadly as to stay that it expressly prohibited defendants from canceling the contracts. It seems to me the terminations constitute a new agency action, requiring separate legal analysis and updated pleadings."

Filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), the case represents Church World Service (CWS), HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and nine individuals impacted by the changes. The order came as more than 600,000 people were in the process of resettling in the United States.

The judge ruled to let the plaintiffs amend their pleadings, regarding a possible modification of the injunction.

The court will offer remote audio access to the public for this hearing on YouTube.

BACKGROUND

Seattle judge blocks Trump refugee ban

A federal judge in Seattle blocked President Trump's executive order seeking to stop refugee services.

The backstory:

Last Tuesday, a federal judge in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending refugee admissions and halting federal funding for resettlement agencies.

The next day, organizations CWS, HIAS, and other agencies received termination notices from the State Department in an attempt to circumvent the court’s order to restore funding to refugee-serving agencies and restart refugee processing.

On Thursday, IRAP filed a motion for an emergency conference arguing that the Trump administration sought to immediately and permanently shut down the USRAP, stating that it violated the Refugee Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the court’s ruling.

The Refugee Act was first passed in 1980. Since then, more than 3 million people have resettled in the U.S. through the Refugee Admissions Program.

Emergency hearing on Trump refugee ban in Seattle

An emergency hearing is scheduled for today in Seattle's federal court in the lawsuit against President Donald Trump's refugee ban.

The Source: Information for this story comes from a press release by the International Refugee Assistance Project in New York and original reporting from FOX 13's Alejandra Guzman.