Victory! Ninth Circuit Upholds
Refugee Freeze
IRLI—now part of FAIR—showed Trump can bar entry
WASHINGTON—Friday evening, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an injunction a lower court had issued against President Trump’s proclamation barring the entry of all refugees into the United States. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), which has since joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), had filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals urging that result.
In its brief, IRLI had shown that Congress, in a statute, has given the President the power to suspend the entry of any class of aliens, or all aliens, if he thinks doing so is in the national interest. And when President Trump, in his first term, issued his travel order barring entry from countries with unreliable procedures for identifying terrorists, the Supreme Court recognized his broad, virtually unreviewable authority to act as he saw fit under this statute.
Refugees are, of course, a class of aliens. And, since many of them turn out to be criminals or terrorist threats, Trump’s view that barring their entry is in the national interest is certainly rational—with rationality being the most that a reviewing court can demand, according to the Supreme Court.
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit agreed, upholding the President’s proclamation under the broad terms of this statute.
“We don’t have to take any refugees, and whether we do so is a matter of policy, not law,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of FAIR. “The law lets Trump block their entry if he sees fit. We are pleased the court saw that the President’s proclamation was 100% legal, and reversed the district court.”
The case is Pacito v. Trump, Nos. 25-1313, 25-1939 (Ninth Circuit).
