By Tiffany Stanley and Peter Smith, Associated Press
Washington (AP) – tens of thousands of recently arrived refugees can lose support for basic needs such as food and rent after an order of the Trump administration suspended federal funds for resettlement agencies.
There is generalized confusion as agency leaders seek greater clarity from the government. The most pressing question is how they will continue to support refugees already under their care in the United States.
The suspension of federal financing “paralyzes the program,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, the National Agency for Reaseline of Lutheran refugees.
The Federal Refugee Program, a form of legal migration to the US, has been in force for decades and helps those who have escaped from war, natural disaster or persecution. Despite the long data support to accept refugees, The program has politicized in recent years..
Religious organizations assume most of refugee resettlement work in the United States. Of the 10 national agencies financed by the federal government that resettle refugees, seven are based on faith.
“We are not obtaining any useful government guide at this time,” said Mark Hetfield, president of Hias, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency. Most of the organization’s budget is federal funds.
“We will fight against the government in this,” said Hetfield.
The Trump administration He has stopped the new refugee admissions. But some refugee agency leaders say that the order of “work stop” last Friday goes one step further, and assume that it will do so affect refugees In the United States, which depend on federal funds for housing, food and support during their first three months in the country.
This foreigner attendance He was arrested before the Trump administration tried to stop All subsidies and federal loans Tuesday. Both directives are part of an ideological review of government spending.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, agreed at least at least temporarily continuing to spend money in humanitarian aid of “salvation of life.” On Wednesday morning, it was not yet clear for refugee agencies if they would receive such exemption or if the government would continue to finance their US programs.
The resettlement agencies are trying to honor their commitments and continue paying their personnel and administrative costs. But their private reservations and donations will have difficulty matching millions in lost federal funds, if in fact everything has stopped.
“Now we are in a difficult situation with thousands of people who have already established in communities in the United States,” said Matthew Soerens, vice president of defense and world relief policy, an evangelical agency of resettlement.
“Our goal of initial assistance is to take them on a relatively fast path towards economic self -sufficiency, working, capable of covering their own expenses,” he said.
World Relief has been raising funds to help with rent and other services for newcomers.
A financing shortage “will actually be harmful to the communities that have received these people, because they will not have the support to integrate as fast as they should,” said Soerens.
What did the stop work order say?
A January 24 letter sent to one of the resettlement agencies of the State Department declared that its resettlement subsidy funds are “immediately suspended” pending a review of foreign assistance programs, which President Donald Trump ordered during a 90 -day period. The letter, from the Office of Population, refugees and migration of the department, said that a decision would be made on whether the funds would be restored, altering or cutting completely.
The agency must “stop all work” and “not incur any new cost” under the subsidy. The letter said the agency “must cancel as many pending obligations as possible.”
Other agencies reported having received directives written in a similar way.
The same grants also finance the initial resettlement costs of those who arrive with visas of special immigrants, most of which are Afghans who helped the military effort of the United States in Afghanistan, along with their families. That is a different category of refugees, but the same fund assistance grants with both.
The leaders of religious organizations react to the directive
The American religious groups have been reappearing refugees for more than one hundred years. Today there are national agencies with Catholic roots, beans and Protestants.
“For many of us, welcome the stranger is a beginning of why we do this work,” said Vignarajah of Global Refuge, citing biblical mandates.
The global church service helps to reassure about 12% of refugees throughout the country, about 12,000 in the last fiscal year, said Senior Vice President Erol Kekic.
“It really is a bridge to self -sufficiency,” Kekic said about the services for which federal funds now apparently stop. He estimates that around 4,000 refugees served by their organization would be affected.
Refugees undergo an extensive research process.
“President Trump has said that he will defend the persecuted Christians,” said Soerens de World Relief. “And the United States refugee resettlement program is one of the main ways in which the United States government protects Christians and others fleeing persecution.”
Mission ahead, a world affiliated organization in Kansas City, Kansas, sent a letter on Monday that sought to raise $ 70,000 to meet the basic needs of 22 families to which it serves through a program that supports newly arrived refugees. The campaign folded the “Mercy Love” campaign.
“When the government abandons its commitment to the vulnerable, the Church must intervene to fill the void,” wrote Jarrett Meek, founder and executive director of the group.
How many people could affect this?
This order can affect at least 26,494 refugees and visas of special immigrants visas, and almost surely, according to an analysis of government statistics.
The order refers to the subsidies that finance the resettlement of newly arrived refugees within the first three months of their time in the United States.
In November and December, both within the current period of three months, about 19,679 refugees and 6,815 SIV receptors were resettled in the United States, according to the Federal Refugee Processing Center. It has not yet provided statistics on January resettlements, which would also be affected. Some arrivals at the end of October, also within the three -month window, could also be affected.
The refugee program remains politicized, despite the long support
Refugee admission shrunken during the previous administration of Trump. The United States admitted about 11,000 refugees during the last year of its first term, the least amount in the history of the program. Former president Joe Biden He rebuilt the programAdmitting almost 100,000 refugees last year, a maximum of three decades.
A 2022 PEW Research Center survey showed broad support for refugee resettlement among the population of the United States in general and among the evangelicals, a central constituency of Trump. Around two thirds of White Evangelicals said it was at least “something important” for the United States to go to refugees, as well as four fifths of Hispanic evangelicals, according to Pew.
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, criticized the role of his church in the defense of immigration in Face the Nation of CBS on Sunday.
The US Catholic Bishops Conference helps to reassure refugees and has criticized Trump’s immigration policies. Vance suggested that the bishops were for money.
“Are you worried about humanitarian concerns or are they really worried about their results?” Vance said.
In a brief statement on Sunday, although it does not refer directly to Vance, the USCCB said it has been associated with the federal government since 1980 on the resettlement of refugees.
“In our agreements with the government, the USCB receives funds to do this job; However, these funds are not enough to cover the entire cost of these programs, ”said the statement. “However, this remains a work of mercy and church ministry.”
The reporters Ap Giovanna Dell’orto in Minneapolis and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas contributed to this story. Smith reported from Pittsburgh.
Associated Press’s religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration With the conversation of us, with funds from Lilly Endowment Inc. the AP is solely responsible for this content.
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