Federal judge partially lifts Trump's latest refugee restrictions

A man protests against US president Donald Trump's travel ban at the arrivals terminal at Los Angeles International Airport in California, US on June 29, 2017. Mike Blake / Reuters

A federal judge in Seattle partially blocked US president Donald Trump's newest restrictions on refugee admissions on Saturday, the latest legal defeat for his efforts to curtail immigration and travel to the United States.

The decision by US District Judge James Robart is the first judicial curb on rules the Trump administration put into place in late October that have contributed significantly to a precipitous drop in the number of refugees being admitted into the country.

Refugees and groups that assist them argued in court that the administration's policies violated the Constitution and federal rulemaking procedures, among other claims. Department of Justice attorneys argued in part that US law grants the executive branch the authority to limit refugee admissions in the way that it had done so.

On October 24, the Trump administration effectively paused refugee admissions from 11 countries mostly in the Middle East and Africa, pending a 90-day security review, which was set to expire in late January.

The countries subject to the review are Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. For each of the last three years, refugees from the 11 countries made up more than 40 per cent of US admissions. A Reuters review of State Department data showed that as the review went into effect, refugee admissions from the 11 countries plummeted.

Read more: Trump travel ban should not apply to people with strong US ties, court says

Judge Robart ruled that the administration could carry out the security review, but that it could not stop processing or admitting refugees from the 11 countries in the meantime, as long as those refugees have a "bona fide" connection to the United States.

As part of its new restrictions, the Trump administration had also paused a programme that allowed for family reunification for refugees, pending further security screening procedures being put into place.

Judge Robart ordered the government to re-start the programme, known as "follow-to-join". Approximately 2,000 refugees were admitted into the United States in fiscal year 2015 under the programme, according to Department of Homeland Security data.

Refugee advocacy groups praised Judge Robart's decision.

"This ruling brings relief to thousands of refugees in precarious situations in the Middle East and East Africa, as well as to refugees already in the US who are trying to reunite with their spouses and children," said Mariko Hirose, litigation director for the International Refugee Assistance Project, one of the plaintiffs in the case.

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Lauren Ehrsam, said the department disagrees with Judge Robart's ruling and is "currently evaluating the next steps".

Judge Robart, who was appointed to the bench by Republican former president George W Bush, emerged from relative obscurity in February, when he issued a temporary order to lift the first version of Mr Trump's travel ban.

On Twitter, Mr Trump called him a "so-called judge" whose "ridiculous" opinion "essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country".

Judge Robart's ruling represented the second legal defeat in two days for the Trump administration. On Friday, a US appeals court said Mr Trump's travel ban targeting six Muslim-majority countries should not be applied to people with strong US ties, but said its ruling would be put on hold pending a decision by the US Supreme Court.