(RNS) — In a Monday night (March 10) status report on refugee resettlement, President Donald Trump’s administration acknowledged there had been a “significant deterioration of functions” due to its stop-work orders and suspension of resettlement programs.
The status report was produced to comply with a federal judge’s order after the administration was sued by three faith-based refugee resettlement organizations, along with refugees and their families, for suspending the federal refugee program.
The administration signaled it planned to move forward with identifying a single service provider for refugee resettlement in the status report, a drastic change in how refugees would receive services when they arrive in the United States. It was “preparing a request for proposals for a new resettlement agency” and expected a solicitation process to take three months, according to the status report.
“This proposal would punish those who have long supported refugee families and abandon decades of expertise and infrastructure that make this program successful,” said Rick Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, one of two refugee resettlement agencies the administration has resumed working with, in a statement. “Doing so is harmful, unnecessary and acts to strip newly arriving refugee families from accessing a robust support network to rebuild their lives.”
The administration also said it did not know how long it would take to restart refugee processing from overseas, as Church World Service and the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, the other organization the administration resumed working with, will need to rehire furloughed workers.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead ordered the Trump administration to produce the status report on refugee resettlement at an emergency hearing March 4 after plaintiffs in Pacito v. Trump — which include faith-based organizations Church World Service, HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and individual refugees and their families — argued the administration was not complying with Whitehead’s Feb. 25 ruling that blocked the president’s Jan. 20 executive order suspending the refugee program.
In the February ruling, Whitehead had said the president’s actions amounted to a “nullification of congressional will.”
The day after the Feb. 25 ruling, the Trump administration sent out termination notices to the 10 refugee resettlement organizations in the U.S., seven of which are faith based. Lawyers for the three faith groups and the nine individual plaintiffs suing the government had requested the March 4 emergency hearing because they believed the terminations were an attempt to undermine Whitehead’s order.
At the end of the hearing, Whitehead said, “The timing of the government’s decision to terminate the contracts of the resettlement agencies just one day after the court issued its preliminary injunction raises serious concerns about whether these actions are designed to circumvent the court’s ruling.”
In the status report, the Trump administration’s lawyers argued the State Department is not required by law to provide reception and placement benefits to refugees when they arrive in the U.S.
Melissa Keaney, a senior supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, pushed back on that claim in an email to RNS, saying, “The court already found that provision of these critical services is required by Congress.” She cited the nearly 50-year history of refugee resettlement agencies providing “critical domestic services and benefits to recently arrived refugees.”
The Trump administration indicated the State Department “is also exploring alternatives to the traditional reception and placement program” without providing further details to protect “deliberative process privileges.”
 status report on refugee resettlement, President Donald Trump’s administration acknowledged there had been a “significant deterioration of functions” due to its stop-work orders and suspension of resettlement programs. ){kind=link}