The State Department acknowledged receipt of an email from The Associated Press about the plaintiffs' motion, but did not otherwise respond to questions about it.

The notices indicated the cooperative agreements with the resettlement agencies were being terminated "for the convenience of the US Government pursuant to a directive from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for alignment with Agency priorities and national interest."

The refugee program, created by Congress in 1980, is a form of legal migration to the US for people displaced by war, natural disaster or persecution—a process that often takes years and involves significant vetting. It is different from asylum, by which people newly arrived in the US can seek permission to remain because they fear persecution in their home country.

Despite longstanding support from both parties for accepting 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 US each year.

There are 600,000 people being processed to come to the US as refugees around the world, according to the administration.

Trump's order and the administration's subsequent withholding of funds stranded refugees who had already been approved to come to the US, forced the refugee aid groups to lay off staff, and cut off short-term assistance, such as rent, for those who had recently resettled here, the organizations said in the lawsuit challenging the actions.

Thursday's filing came the day after the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to block another court order requiring it to release billions in suspended foreign aid. The administration also outlined plans to cancel more than 90% of the US Agency for International Development's foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall US assistance around the world.

Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition supporting Afghan resettlement efforts, said the termination of the contracts would hurt Afghans who worked closely with the US during its more than two-decade-long war in Afghanistan and are now at risk. They have been resettling in the US via the refugee program as well as the special immigrant visa program.

While the special immigrant visa program is still operational, the contract terminations strip away funding that went to helping those who qualified come to America and start new lives here.

"Now Afghans are on their own to get here," he said.

"Make no mistake about it, this is a betrayal on par with what we all felt in August of 2021," he said, referring to the chaotic American withdrawal from Kabul under the Biden administration.

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