WASHINGTON — An appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to suspend entry of new refugees as a lawsuit plays out over the president’s executive order halting the nation’s refugee admissions system.

Refugees conditionally approved before President Donald Trump took office must still be processed under the order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the order allows the Republican administration to suspend new approvals.

Appeals Court Halted a Ruling From Seattle

The appeals court panel largely halted a ruling from U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle. Whitehead found that Trump could not nullify the law passed by Congress establishing the program.

Whitehead, who was appointed President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said the president does have substantial discretion to suspend refugee admissions but the authority was not limitless. He pointed to reports of refugees stranded in dangerous places, families who sold everything they’ve owned in anticipation of travel that was later canceled and families separated from relatives in the U.S.

Trump’s order said the refugee program — a form of legal migration to the U.S. for people displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution — would be suspended because cities and communities had been taxed by “record levels of migration” and didn’t have the ability to “absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees.” There are 600,000 people being processed to come to the U.S. as refugees around the world, according to the administration.

Despite long-standing support from both major political parties for accepting thoroughly vetted refugees, the program has become politicized in recent years. Trump also temporarily halted it during his first term, and then dramatically decreased the number of refugees who could enter the U.S. each year.

The Justice Department argued that the order was well within Trump’s authority.

The plaintiffs include the International Refugee Assistance Project on behalf of Church World Service, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and individual refugees and family members. They said their ability to provide critical services to refugees, including those already in the U.S., has been severely inhibited by Trump’s order.