A coalition of some of the nation’s largest refugee resettlement organizations on Monday sued the Trump administration over its indefinite pause of the refugee system, asking a federal court to move swiftly to restart the program.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, aims to immediately revive a system that had thrived for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations and to restart federal funding for organizations that help refugees resettle in the United States. It is the first suit to challenge the Trump administration’s freeze of the program.

“The impact of these executive actions has been sweeping and harmful for our refugee clients, our staff and our local faith community partners,” Rick Santos, head of the Church World Service, one of the resettlement organizations that filed the suit, said in a statement. “These executive actions have abandoned refugee families both abroad and those who are already a part of our American communities.”

Among those who have been affected by the pause, Mr. Santos said, are two Afghan parents living in Massachusetts whose four children had been set to arrive in January.

“They now do not know if or when their children will be able to come home,” he said.

One of President Trump’s first actions on his first day in office was to freeze the refugee resettlement system with an executive action, contending that the country has seen an influx of immigrants in recent years and that communities across the United States were not in a position to welcome refugees.

He ordered agency leaders at the Homeland Security and State Departments to recommend whether to restart the program within 90 days.