Refugee Council USA Joins Federal Lawsuit Challenging Unlawful Trump-Vance Policies That Strip Refugees of Legal Protections

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), a coalition of nearly 40 U.S.-based refugee resettlement and humanitarian organizations, today announced it has joined a federal lawsuit challenging sweeping policies from the Trump-Vance administration that would strip refugees of their “refugee status” and have frozen refugees’ I-485 adjustment of status (green card) applications without the due process protections that federal law requires and American values demand. 

RCUSA joins co-plaintiffs Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, International Institute of New England, African Communities Together (ACT), HIAS, Refugee Council USA, and four individuals from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Iraq, in this lawsuit brought by Democracy Forward, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and pro bono counsel. The lawsuit challenges actions by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that attempt to dismantle the core principles underlying decades of refugee protection under U.S. law, wrongfully re-interpret permanent, durable solutions as merely temporary, and inflict considerable harm on already-traumatized refugees by sending them back to the very countries they had fled in fear of their lives. 

“In the face of an unprecedented string of unconstitutional attacks that terrorize and endanger refugee communities, RCUSA stands resolute alongside refugees, including those already resettled in the United States and those stranded abroad. This administration has consistently tried to undermine the durability of refugee protections and to dehumanize individuals fleeing violence and persecution. Everyone deserves a safe place to call home. That requires holding the federal government accountable for its discriminatory and unlawful targeting of refugees. We must denounce any attempt to dismantle access to permanent protection. With this lawsuit, RCUSA takes a principled stand against a federal government that appears poised to begin deporting resettled refugees en masse.” – John Slocum, Executive Director, Refugee Council USA

Since the Trump-Vance administration began indiscriminately targeting refugees, across the United States, panic has spread among refugee communities, reshaping their daily lives. The DHS policies suspending refugee green card processing, while simultaneously making the same unadjusted refugees vulnerable to deportation to places where their lives may be in danger, leave them in a deadly bureaucratic trap. 

Many refugee families have felt held captive in their own homes, fearing interaction with law enforcement. Refugee families fear sending their children to school, going to doctor appointments, grocery shopping, or even driving to work. Originally from Sudan, S and her family, refugees resettled to Minnesota from a refugee camp in Chad in 2023, described covering their windows after immigration officers stood outside their home, photographed S’s car and license plate, and knocked on their door. S asked if they had a warrant; they said they did not but would come back. In the months that followed, the family stayed inside, not going to work, while volunteers dropped off groceries. S’s nieces and nephews go to school but struggle to concentrate, worried that immigration officers will return while they’re gone. S has said that living this way “reminds me of the war . . . The fear of not knowing what will happen. . . . I just want to feel safe again.” (Source)

Who RCUSA Is and Who It Represents

Founded in 2000, RCUSA is the nation’s foremost coalition of organizations dedicated to providing welcome and protection for refugees and other forcibly displaced people. Among the coalition’s members are organizations that welcome refugees to hundreds of communities across the country – and provide legal, case management, job placement, and community-based services to tens of thousands of individuals each year. RCUSA and its members advocate for pathways to protection, and national, state, and local policies that defend and uphold the United States’s moral and legal obligations to the most at-risk refugees fleeing persecution and violence.

RCUSA members include national resettlement agencies and other innovative service providers, humanitarian organizations, and refugee-led and refugee-serving organizations whose work touches virtually every aspect of a refugee’s journey — from initial displacement to arrival and resettlement in the United States, to long-term integration and civic participation. The individuals RCUSA stands alongside are not statistics. They are our neighbors, employees, and fellow congregants, who rebuilt their lives in the United States after surviving unimaginable hardship and who bring extraordinary resilience and civic commitment to their communities.

What Is at Stake for Refugees and the Organizations That Serve Them

Refugee status is an opportunity for permanent protection established by Congress under the Refugee Act of 1980. The Trump-Vance administration has largely suspended refugees’ I-485 adjustment of status application adjudications, and this latest harmful rule allows the government to more easily revoke refugee status for those same unadjusted refugees, bypassing the procedural safeguards that have long been required by law. Under this rule, refugees, many with families, jobs, and longstanding community ties, would not have a meaningful opportunity to be heard; instead, refugees would be placed into removal proceedings and potentially sent to countries where they previously faced persecution, torture, or death – or to a third country where they may have no meaningful connections and could face significant harm.

For RCUSA’s member organizations, these policies are not an abstract legal threat; they are a direct assault on the people they serve every day. Resettlement agencies that have dedicated years and their training to helping families find stability would watch clients stripped of that stability overnight. Legal service providers would see cases upended by a process designed to deny access to counsel and a hearing that makes a fair outcome impossible. Former refugees, who themselves are a key element of this country’s capacity to welcome – and who bring enormous economic and cultural benefits to communities across the country – may feel coerced into remaining behind closed doors. The harm is immediate, concrete, and irreversible.

A Pattern of Attacks on Refugee Protections and a Determination to Fight Back

This lawsuit is the latest in a series of actions RCUSA and its membership have taken in response to the Trump-Vance administration’s systematic effort to dismantle the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and eliminate humanitarian protections. This administration has suspended the U.S. resettlement program, brought refugee processing and admissions to a halt – with an exception for certain white South Africans (Afrikaners) – demolished the U.S. resettlement infrastructure painstakingly built over decades, and indiscriminately arrested and detained recently-resettled refugees.

Legal Basis

The lawsuit argues that the administration’s actions violate the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by attempting to subject lawfully admitted refugees to expedited removal procedures that Congress never authorized. It also warns that the new rules threaten thousands of refugees nationwide and undermine the commitments Congress established in the Refugee Act of 1980 to provide protection and stability to people fleeing persecution.

It also warns that the new rule threatens thousands of refugees nationwide and undermines the commitments Congress established in the Refugee Act of 1980 to provide protection and stability to people fleeing persecution.

Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the policies unlawful and block the government from terminating refugee status and freezing refugees’ green card application adjudications. RCUSA is proud to stand alongside Democracy Forward, IRAP, Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, International Institute of New England, African Communities Together (ACT), HIAS, Refugee Council USA, and four individuals from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Iraq in this critical legal defense of refugee rights.

About Refugee Council USA
RCUSA is a diverse coalition advocating for just and humane laws and policies, and the promotion of dialogue and communication among government, civil society, and those who need protection and welcome. Individual RCUSA members do not all address all refugee-related issues, nor do all individual members approach common refugee-related issues identically.

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Media Contact: meredithowen@rcusa.org