In late July, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) made headway in its Pacito v. Trump lawsuit, which challenged President Donald Trump's January 20 executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead denied the government's motion to dismiss and ruled that IRAP may create a class-action suit to allow all parties to "seek…broad relief from government policies."
IRAP litigation fellow Megan Hauptman said that this decision does not "alter the scope of the preliminary injunction currently in place," meaning that at present, the government is only required "to process cases of refugees who had travel booked on or before January 20, 2025."
However, Hauptman also said that "recent court decisions allow the litigation to move forward on behalf of all refugees harmed by the unlawful refugee ban." An IRAP press release names the suit's three subclasses as all USRAP applicants awaiting processing, any Afghan or Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients who did not receive resettlement support following a January 24 stop work order, and refugees awaiting the resettlement of family members through the follow-to-join program.
