Federal judge blocks Trump’s refugee ban for now

A Seattle-based federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s effort to suspend the United States’s refugee program, siding with resettlement groups that argued the move unlawfully disrupted the system Congress established for admitting refugees.

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ruled from the bench that President Donald Trump’s executive order, which halted refugee processing for 90 days, amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will.”