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SEATTLE (AP) — The Latest on a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration prohibition on refugee families (all times local):
11:32 a.m.
A federal judge said he would decide before Christmas whether to stop a Trump administration ban on refugees after hearing arguments that the policy is separating families and putting some refugees in danger.
Lawyers from the ACLU and Jewish Family Services asked U.S. District Judge James Robart for an injunction Thursday on a ban the administration has placed on refugees from certain mostly Muslim countries.
Department of Justice lawyers say the ban is temporary and was needed while officials review the vetting process. They said it's a national security issue.
But lawyers for the refugees say the administration failed to follow the law in implementing the ban, which they say is causing irreparable harm.
The ACLU represents a Somali man living in Washington state who is trying to bring his family to the U.S.
Jewish Family Services represents refugees whose lives are at risk. They include two interpreters who worked for U.S. Army troops in Iraq.
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8:03 a.m.
Lawyers representing refugees who have legally settled in the U.S. are asking a federal judge to stop the Trump administration from keeping the families of the refugees from joining them in this country.
The ACLU, representing a Somali man living in Washington state, will argue in federal court Thursday that Trump's indefinite prohibition on refugee families violates immigration law and the constitutional rights of the legal permanent residents.
The man, using the pseudonym Joseph Doe, fled Somali when he was 10. He spent 22 years in Kenyan refugee camps and after extensive screening, arrived in the U.S. in 2014. His wife and three children remain in Kenya. He filed petitions to bring them over, but the Trump ban has blocked that effort.
The ACLU says the decision to indefinitely halt the "follow-to-join" refugees inflicts irreparable injury and should be stopped.
The government says extra screening is needed for national security.
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