April 22, 2025
 Last updated: Tuesday, April 22, 2025 
The Trump administration’s indefinite refugee ban, stop work orders, and failure to reimburse resettlement agencies have had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of refugee families and communities across the country. This resource will provide regular updates each weekday on the current state of play; updated asks for national, state and local leaders; and messaging and social media guidance. Subscribe now to receive daily updates on the latest developments and ways to support impacted communities.

The latest: Yet more action in the Pacito v. Trump case, in which CWS and others have challenged the Trump administration’s refugee ban and funding freeze. Yesterday evening, the Ninth Circuit further narrowed its previous order requiring a resumption of refugee resettlement – in this case requiring the administration to resume refugee resettlement for refugees who as of January 20, 2025 have: 
To catch you up, The District Court has previously issued two preliminary injunctions in the case: a February 25 order that enjoins the refugee ban executive order and requires the resumption of refugee resettlement and a March 24 order that requires the restoration of contracts with resettlement agencies to provide support to refugees. The Ninth Circuit had narrowed the first preliminary injunction to require the resumption of resettlement for approximately 128,000 refugees who had been conditionally approved by USCIS as of January 19, 2025. Now, the Ninth Circuit has further narrowed its order to cover refugees meeting the description named above.
It remains unclear at this point how the Ninth Circuit’s ruling will interact with the proposed compliance schedules submitted by plaintiffs and the administration last Friday that were described in yesterday’s edition of this resource.  
Resettlement report’s whereabouts remain unknown as communities call for resumption in resettlement. In a press briefing yesterday, community leaders from across the country called for the immediate restoration of refugee resettlement. The briefing featured Mayor of Pittsburgh Ed Gainey, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, Refugee Congress Delegate Aisha Koroma, President of #AfghanEvac Shawn Van Diver, CWS National Field Director Rev. Noel Andersen, and HIAS President Mark Hetfield, among others. View a full recording of the briefing here.
A report from the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security on the resumption of refugee resettlement (separate from the ongoing court case) was due two days ago on April 20. It remains unclear whether the report was delivered by the deadline, what it contains, and whether it will be made public. 
Administration and Congress target nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations. According to an April 16 report, the Trump administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) attempted to embed its staff within the Vera Institute of Justice – a nonprofit legal service provider and advocacy organization that has long supported increased access to legal representation for immigrants, including unaccompanied children. DOGE told the Vera Institute that it plans to assign teams to “every institute or agency that has congressional monies appropriated to it.” After a meeting with DOGE representatives last Tuesday in which the Vera Institute noted that its $5 million in government contracts had been canceled a week earlier, DOGE withdrew its request to assign staff to the nonprofit. In a statement, Vera noted that a DOGE attorney did not answer questions about the legal justification for its intended action. 
Meanwhile, on April 16, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee launched an inquiry into a New York-based nonprofit that has offered Know Your Rights trainings to prepare community members for potential interactions with immigration enforcement officials. The Committee has demanded documents from the Chinese-American Planning Council, including federal grant applications, Know Your Rights presentations, and records of internal and external communications.
Latest on humanitarian parole litigation. In a court filing on Friday, the Department of Justice said that the threatening termination messages it sent to individuals with humanitarian parole were sent in error to two Afghans and 4,700 Ukrainians who had been paroled in to the U.S. through the Operation Allies Welcome and Uniting For Ukraine programs, respectively. On April 14, federal judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration’s mass revocation of the parole status of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parolees without “case-by-case justification.” Judge Talwani has yet to issue an order regarding terminations of other parole programs, including the Central American Minors program and Family Reunification Parole.
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