Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

6. Department of State · Major

Indefinitely curtail refugee admissions under USRAP

Done

178 6. Department of State

“The federal government’s obligation to shift national security–essential screening and vetting resources to the forged border crisis will necessitate an indefinite curtailment of the number of USRAP refugee admissions. The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which administers USRAP, must shift its resources to challenges stemming from the current immigration situation until the crisis can be contained and refugee-focused screening and vetting capacity can reasonably be restored.”

What has happened

  1. Done

    Presidential Determination 2026-24 set the FY2027 ceiling at 17,500, the level the May 2026 emergency determination had raised FY2026 to. The admissions "shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa pursuant to Executive Order 14204". They remain "in all respects subject to" EO 14163, whose suspension of refugee entry the determination recites as still in force, along with EO 14161 and Proclamation 10998. A second year of the curtailment, not a resumption.

  2. Done

    Emergency Presidential Determination 2026-14 raised the FY2026 ceiling from 7,500 to 17,500, the increase reserved for Afrikaners from South Africa; the general suspension under EO 14163 continues.

  3. Done

    The Ninth Circuit reversed the injunctions as to the suspension itself: plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed in showing EO 14163 exceeded the President's authority under 8 U.S.C. §1182(f) and the Refugee Act, and State could lawfully defund overseas processing while admissions are limited to case-by-case entry. It affirmed only as to statutorily mandated services for refugees already admitted and the unexplained termination of the cooperative agreements.

  4. Done

    Presidential Determination 2025-13 set the FY2026 refugee ceiling at 7,500 — the lowest ever — allocated primarily to Afrikaners from South Africa under EO 14204, with all admissions still subject to the EO 14163 suspension.

  5. Partially done

    A Ninth Circuit motions panel stayed the injunction except as to refugees conditionally approved before 2025-01-20 (77 were later admitted under the carve-out); on 2025-09-12 the court, after argument, stayed the injunctions pending appeal except as to services for refugees already in the United States. The suspension of new admissions was back in force.

  6. Blocked

    In Pacito v. Trump (W.D. Wash. 2:25-cv-00255) the district court preliminarily enjoined enforcement of §§3(a)–(c) and 4 of EO 14163 and, by written order of February 28, the suspension of USRAP funding; a second injunction on 2025-03-24 blocked the termination of the resettlement cooperative agreements. (Dates as recited in the Ninth Circuit's 2026-03-05 opinion; the district-court orders themselves could not be read.)

  7. Done

    Executive Order 14163 suspended USRAP entry and decisions on applications from 12:01 a.m. on 2025-01-27 until resumption is found to be in the national interest, with 90-day reviews and case-by-case exceptions — an indefinite curtailment. State canceled scheduled refugee travel from noon on January 20 and on January 24 suspended the resettlement cooperative agreements.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The Ninth Circuit’s 2026-03-05 opinion is used as the Evidence for the 2025-02-25 and 2025-03-25 court events because it is the readable allowlisted record of them: the district-court orders (W.D. Wash.) were not available to us and the CourtListener docket https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69626101/pacito-v-trump/ cannot be read without authentication (lead). The Ninth Circuit’s own 2025-09-12 opinion (https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/09/12/25-1939.pdf) returned the court’s 404 page on two attempts and is likewise a lead (CourtListener record https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10670848/pacito-v-trump/).
  • Secondary coverage of the February 25 ruling (The Hill, Axios, Washington Post) could not be opened and is not cited.
  • Related dockets found in the federal court records, not read: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops v. State (D.D.C. 1:25-cv-00465, on resettlement funding; opinion 2025-03-11 and D.C. Cir. 25-5066), Doe v. Mullin (D. Mass.), Haitian Americans United v. Trump (D. Mass.).
  • The Mandate’s second sentence (PRM shifting resources to the border) was not separately tracked.
  • FY2027 refugee determination (reviewed 2026-10-04). Our search of new Federal Register documents did not link PD 2026-24 (FR 2026-20318) to this item, and the record we had for it carried no abstract. We read the full text at federalregister.gov: a 17,500 ceiling, primarily Afrikaners under EO 14204, and all admissions subject to the EO 14163 suspension. It is recorded as the 2026-09-25 event. The ceiling is unchanged from FY2026 as amended in May, and the suspension continues, so done holds.
Action
restrict
Object
U.S. Refugee Admission Program (USRAP)
ID
482