Government seeks change to order lifting Donald Trump imposed refugee ban

Mariko Hirose, a lawyer on the Jewish Family Service case, said Donald Trump administration has attacked refugee resettlement since the first travel ban, leaving vulnerable refugees in limbo.

By: AP | Seattle | Published: December 29, 2017 8:12 am

Government seeks change to order lifting Trump refugee ban

Mariko Hirose (right) a litigation director at the Urban Justice Center, addresses reporters in front of a federal courthouse in Seattle. (Source: AP/File)

Lawyers with the Department of Justice have asked a federal judge to change his order that partially lifted a Trump administration refugee ban.

Just before Christmas, US District Judge James Robart in Seattle imposed a nationwide injunction that blocks restrictions on reuniting refugee families and partially lifted a ban on refugees from 11 mostly Muslim countries. Robart limited that part of the injunction to refugees who have a bona fide relationship with people or entities in the United States. He also said that refugees who have formal agreements with refugee resettlement agencies were covered under his order.