MISLEADING: OLD VIDEO RECYCLED TO CLAIM ALL REFUGEES CAN NOW ENTER THE U.S
CLAIM
A TikTok video claims that a U.S. federal judge has allowed all refugees to return to the United States from November 4, 2026. Besides the captions, the video further claims that refugees whose “Welcome Program” has been approved, or who already have tickets to travel to the U.S., can now proceed with their journeys and will not be stopped at the airport.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
On November 2, 2026, Project Rousseau, a nonprofit organisation providing legal services to asylum seekers, filed a case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The organisation sought to temporarily stop the removal of its Afghan clients from the United States to Pakistan or Afghanistan, arguing that they could face serious harm if deported.
On November 3, 2026, U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni issued a temporary restraining order requiring the U.S. government to comply with its representations that there were no planned or confirmed chartered or commercial flights to deport Afghan nationals to Afghanistan or Pakistan during the period covered by the order.
The case, Project Rousseau, Inc. v. Venturella et al., concerned a specific group of Afghan nationals facing possible removal. It did not concern a general authorization for refugees to enter or return to the United States.
On November 6, Judge Victor Marrero amended and extended the temporary restraining order, specifically barring the deportation of the Afghan nationals identified in the case to Pakistan, Afghanistan or any other third country pending further court orders.
FINDINGS
1. Debunk Info Verifier identified the claim as too broad.
We submitted the claim, “All refugees are now allowed by a US Federal Judge to come again to the US,” to the Debunk Info Verifier, a fact-checking tool developed by Debunk Media Initiative (DMI).
The tool identified the claim as too broad and returned information indicating that the court ruling concerned specific refugees affected by the U.S. travel restrictions rather than all refugees.
Among the sources identified by the tool were reports from the Washington State Standard, PBS News and Courthouse News Service.
2. Tracing the original video
During our investigation, we reviewed the TikTok account @julia.hernandez3052 and observed that most of the videos posted on the account appeared to originate from other creators. The uploader had used the green-screen feature to share videos from other accounts, often adding captions to them.
This prompted us to investigate the origin of the video making the refugee-entry claim rather than rely on the account that had reposted it.
We used keywords related to the subject, including refugees and immigration, to search TikTok for earlier versions of the video. Through this search, we located an earlier upload by @thematthewsimmi.law, published on February 26, 2025.
This established that the announcement was not new, as the November 2026 posts suggested, but a recirculation of a video discussing a court decision from February 2025.
The video discussed a court decision issued by U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead on February 25, 2025, in the case Pacito et al. v. Trump et al.
3. The original court proceedings provided limited protection to certain refugees, not all refugees.
The February 2025 ruling discussed in the original TikTok video arose from Pacito et al. v. Trump et al., a case challenging the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
Although Judge Jamal N. Whitehead initially issued an injunction blocking parts of the suspension, the U.S. government challenged the decision before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
On March 25, 2025, the appellate court partially stayed the district court’s injunction but maintained a limited exception for refugees who had been conditionally approved for admission before January 20, 2025.
On April 21, 2025, the Ninth Circuit clarified the conditions for this protection. It applied to individuals who, on or before January 20, 2025:
- Had an approved refugee application authorising their conditional admission.
- Had been cleared by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for travel to the United States.
- Had confirmed travel arrangements to the United States.
The government was required to facilitate their travel and admission and provide resettlement benefits after admission.
This protection applied only to refugees who had already reached specific stages of the resettlement process. It was not a blanket authorization for all refugees to enter the United States.
4. Subsequent court proceedings changed the status of the original ruling.
On September 12, 2025, the Ninth Circuit issued a further order staying most of the district court’s injunctions pending the final determination of the appeal.
On March 5, 2026, the Ninth Circuit issued its decision in Pacito et al. v. Trump et al. The court reversed the portions of the earlier injunctions that had blocked the suspension of refugee admissions and the cessation of overseas refugee processing.
The court upheld relief concerning the government’s obligation to provide domestic resettlement services to refugees already admitted to the United States and the termination of certain resettlement support agreements.
Consequently, the original February 2025 ruling cannot be presented as an unrestricted or continuing authorization for refugees to travel to the United States.
The March 2026 decision also recognized that the executive order allowed refugee admissions on a case-by-case basis where the relevant U.S. government secretaries jointly determined that admission was in the national interest and did not pose a threat to the country’s security or welfare.
5. An approved refugee application or travel ticket does not guarantee entry into the United States.
The TikTok uploader further claims that refugees whose “Welcome Program” has been approved or who already have tickets to travel to the United States will not be stopped at the airport.
However, the Ninth Circuit’s March 5, 2026 opinion explains that even a refugee with an approved Form I-590 must undergo inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) upon arrival. CBP retains the ultimate authority to determine whether the individual can be admitted into the country.
Therefore, having an approved refugee application or a travel document does not, by itself, guarantee admission.
Furthermore, the uploader does not establish that the individuals being addressed fall within the specific categories protected by the earlier court orders or qualify under any subsequent admission exception.
METHODOLOGY
we submitted the claim to the Debunk Info Verifier to identify relevant fact-checking reports and supporting information. The tool’s results were assessed against the underlying court documents and other authoritative sources.
We traced the announcement to its original TikTok publication and compared its publication date with the dates on which the video was subsequently recirculated.
We searched for the court ruling referenced in the announcement and reviewed the relevant court documents in Pacito et al. v. Trump et al., including the initial preliminary injunction, the Ninth Circuit’s subsequent orders and its March 5, 2026 decision.
We also reviewed information from U.S. immigration authorities concerning refugee admission procedures and the role of Customs and Border Protection in determining admission at U.S. ports of entry.
VERDICT: MISLEADING.
The TikTok video recycles an announcement about a February 2025 court ruling and presents it as breaking news in November 2026.
Although the original court proceedings provided limited protection to certain refugees who had already been approved and cleared for travel before January 20, 2025, subsequent appellate decisions changed the scope of that protection. The Ninth Circuit’s March 5, 2026 decision largely upheld the suspension of refugee admissions.
The ruling did not grant all refugees permission to enter or return to the United States. Furthermore, an approved refugee application or travel ticket does not automatically guarantee admission at a U.S. airport, where CBP retains the authority to determine admissibility.