The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed this week that President Donald Trump is within full presidential authority to suspend refugee resettlement to the U.S.
The panel of judges, the largest in the nation for an appellate court, vacated a lower court’s injunction against the Trump administration’s executive order suspending refugee resettlement. The panel wrote that Congress delegates broad powers over immigration to the president.
“The panel concluded that Plaintiffs failed to make a strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their challenges to Executive Order No. 14163 as beyond the President’s statutory authority under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f) and the Refugee Act,” the panel of judges wrote:
As to the sections of the executive order that suspend the admission of approved refugees to the United States, the panel rejected the district court’s concerns that the President impermissibly suspended USRAP in its entirety and indefinitely. As to the section of the executive order that suspends decisions on all applications for refugee status, nothing in the Refugee Act directs the President to continue to process applications while admissions have been suspended. [Emphasis added]
Dale Wilcox with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) celebrated the decision as the group had filed a brief in support of Trump’s authority to suspend refugee resettlement.
“We don’t have to take any refugees, and whether we do so is a matter of policy, not law,” Wilcox said. “The law lets Trump block their entry if he sees fit. We are pleased the court recognized the President’s prerogative and vacated the lower court’s activist injunction.”
The case is Pacito v. Trump, No. 2:25-cv-00255-JNW in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
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