The federal judge in Seattle has blocked President Trump's executive order halting the admission of refugees into the U.S.

The judge said the administration had likely exceeded its authority by freezing the U.S. refugee admissions program, which was established by Congress back in 1980.

It remains to be seen whether the administration will comply, while a lawsuit challenging the ban filed by some of the country's largest resettlement organizations works its way through the courts.

We're joined now by Mark Hetfield. He's the president of highest. That's the country's oldest refugee resettlement agency, and the organization is also a plaintiff in that lawsuit.

Thanks for being with us.

Thank you, Jeff.

So first, help us understand what the U.S. refugee admissions program is.

How does the program work and who does it aim to assist?

Sure.

So the program was started in 1980 by the Refugee Act of 1980 to provide a safe and legal pathway for people fleeing persecution

or war or conflict to come to the United States to either join with family or to meet

foreign policy, humanitarian policy priorities of the United States government.

So what was the material impact of this suspension?

How were the refugees affected and your employees as well?

It was devastating.

And this was not just a mere suspension like it was in the first Trump term.

This was a complete dismantlement of the refugee program.

Because not only did all refugees, not only were all refugees stopped from arriving,

but also all the processing offices were shut down,

everything was defunded, so it's gonna be almost impossible

to start it back up.

And in terms of the actual impact, for example,

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