April 25, 2025
Last updated: Friday, April 25, 2025
This resource provides daily updates from the CWS policy team in your inbox on the latest policy changes; the morning’s headlines on key issues impacting refugees and immigrants; and updated tools to take action. Subscribe now to receive daily updates on the latest developments and ways to support impacted communities.
The latest: Now 95 days after President Trump returned to office and signed Executive Order 14013, the refugee resettlement program remains indefinitely suspended. No refugees are arriving, and contracts to process refugees overseas and provide critical Reception and Placement (R&P) services to those who have already been resettled remain suspended.
In Pacito v. Trump, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the administration must process and resettle over 10,000 refugees who had completed all necessary processing steps and had flights booked to the U.S. that were cancelled as a result of the ongoing refugee ban. But the administration has taken no steps to abide by this ruling (even as plaintiffs laid out a detailed schedule last Friday for how resettlement could and should resume). See the latest filings in the case here.
The initial refugee ban executive order required the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to submit a report to the White House on the possible resumption of the program every 90 days, with the first report due April 20. That deadline has now passed, and no clarity has been provided on the contents or whereabouts of the report (although some have suggested that the report has been formally submitted to the White House).
Meanwhile, in Congress: The House and Senate are concluding a two-week recess, and will be returning to Capitol Hill early next week. Once back, three separate funding processes will kick off at once that could have dramatic impacts on refugees, immigrants, and others who remain vulnerable.
Judge rules another individual was wrongly deported to Salvadoran prison under invocation of Alien Enemies Act and must be returned. On April 23, a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled the Trump administration wrongly deported a 20-year old Venezuelan man to El Salvador. The man entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied child and was part of a class action lawsuit settled in 2024 that barred his removal pending an ongoing asylum application. Just as in the Supreme Court ruling in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, the judge in this case ruled that the administration must facilitate the man’s return to the U.S.
It is the latest in a series of rulings against the administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, which was last used to detain thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants during World War II. See CWS statement on the invocation of the Act here.
Loni is a mother of six children who fled violence and torture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The family’s flight to Houston to reunite with her husband (the children’s father) was scheduled for February – but it was cancelled after the ban went into effect. Loni and her children are now stuck indefinitely in Malawi.
Pacito is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was approved for resettlement and scheduled for travel with his wife and baby. They had sold all the family’s possessions and given up their home in preparation – but their flight was abruptly cancelled by the refugee ban. As of April 25, Pacito and his family remain stranded, and their medical screenings and exit visas have now expired.
Zenayda is a refugee who resettled in Texas who has been trying for years to get her child to safety after many attempts have been made to kidnap the child. The child’s flight was booked to arrive in February. That flight has now been cancelled, and the child’s case – which is listed as “extremely vulnerable” – is now once again delayed.
Find more stories of impact here.
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