Since taking office a little over two months ago, President Donald Trump has continued to carry out his promises of cracking down on immigration. He has also halted the resettlement of refugees. These programs have been suspended and federal funding has been slashed.
“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” the White House said in a statement announcing the stop work order for refugee resettlement programs in January.
These actions are having major impacts across California, which is one of the top two states for refugee resettlement, and Sacramento is home to large diaspora communities. Jessie Mabry is the CEO of Opening Doors, a nonprofit that supports immigrants, refugees, and survivors of trafficking. In the wake of the Trump administration’s actions, the nonprofit was forced to lay off 15% of its staff.
According to Opening Doors, 83 individuals from Afghanistan who secured Special Immigrant Visas– because they aided the U.S. military – had their travel to Sacramento canceled in February because of Trump’s orders.
Mabry recently joined Insight’s Vicki Gonzalez to talk about the impacts on the local refugee population.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
You joined us about two months ago, it was the week after the inauguration, to talk about the early impacts on organizations like yours. What is the state of refugee programs in the country right now?
There's been a lot that's happened since we talked last. I believe the last time we spoke the executive order that effectively suspended the U.S. refugee resettlement program was already in place, that came out on Jan. 20.
Then on Jan. 24, there were the stop work orders issued for effectively all U.S.-funded humanitarian programs, and that included resettlement services to refugees who are already here inside the U.S. At the time that order was issued, we were providing services to 521 newly arrived refugees.
On top of that, there have also been a number of challenges and delayed payments. The U.S. refugee resettlement program is a reimbursement-based program, which means that nonprofits like Opening Doors implement the program and the core services. We submit invoices to the federal government for reimbursement for the expenses that we've incurred under the program. We have not been reimbursed for this program since well before the inauguration.
When it comes to the staff you had to lay off, what work did they do with the refugee community?
For the most part, these were case work staff in our refugee resettlement program. Right now we are not seeing any refugees come into the U.S. through the refugee resettlement program. As I had said, we had 521 individuals on our case role at the time that the stop work order was issued, including a young woman who arrived just the night before.
We made a commitment despite that order that we were not going to leave those folks hanging, and so we continued to accompany them and support them as best as we could. All of them are in housing now, which is one of the most important pieces.
But without new refugees coming in, we just don't have the same level of work.
Does that mean that you will not be accepting or not capable of accepting refugees for the next three-plus years?
Well, there is an active court case in Washington State right now on this. On Feb. 10, resettlement agencies along with a few named defendants sued the administration to block this refugee ban. There was initially a positive ruling for us where the judge ruled that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits and he enjoined the implementation of that ban.
However, the very next day, the administration terminated all contracts to refugee resettlement agencies. Though that judge issued a second preliminary injunction saying that the termination of those contracts is unlawful. And then [the Trump Administration] says that they are in the process of notifying the resettlement partners of their intent to reinstate those terminated contracts. But then after reinstatement, they do plan to suspend them again. So at this point, it's a little unclear what the future of the U.S. refugee resettlement program is.
When you joined us at the end of January, you mentioned that there was a flight of refugees that were planning to come to Sacramento. It couldn't happen because of these executive actions. Can you lay out how refugees arrive in the United States?
Opening Doors and most of the resettlement agencies in Sacramento welcome, not exclusively, but predominantly Afghan refugees. Many of whom are at risk in their home country because of their affiliation with the U.S. as a translator or a mechanic for the U.S. military, or something along those lines. These folks are in incredible danger.
The entire process of entering into the refugee program and then actually arriving here can go on for years. There's biometric screening, there's background checks, there's many many layers of screening involved. The second to last step is getting that visa in your passport.
At that point, you're ready to travel and in typical times you would just be waiting for the State Department to organize your tickets and your flights, and Opening Doors or another agency would meet you at the airport.
We’re seeing folks who were in that situation where their travel was cancelled, but they have that valid Special Immigrant Visa in their passport, [they] are self-funding their travel. They're scraping together every last cent that they can.
Over the last two months, there have been almost 700 individuals who have come into California on these Special Immigrant Visas, over half of them to Sacramento County. And when they arrive here, they've used all of their resources on their tickets and they don't have those resources for housing, for food, and all of those things that are required to set themselves up.
We're doing the best that we can to help them navigate the social services and the social safety nets. But it is really challenging without that federal support.
Do you envision this continuing to happen as legal battles play out?
Ultimately, whether someone is an asylum seeker or a refugee, they are seeking safety. They are fleeing a fear of persecution and potentially even death in their home countries. And their movement here to California, to Sacramento, is an expression of self-protection for themselves and their families.
That fundamental desire to keep yourself safe, to keep your kids safe, will persist regardless of federal policies. I have faith that people will continue to keep themselves and their family safe. It's just increasingly difficult in this climate.
When you were talking about this in January, you made an important point that when refugees are coming here, they often have family that already live in Sacramento. We're home to large diaspora communities. How are they feeling right now?
It's a really challenging time. And so the fear and the anxiety that people have not just overseas at trying to keep themselves safe, but our neighbors here in Sacramento who are worried about their brothers and their aunts and their parents. We remain in communication with the loved ones of those 83 individuals who had their travel canceled. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of answers and clarity to give them in terms of what the future might look like, in terms of timelines of their families reaching safety.
Sacramento is also home to a significant Ukrainian refugee community. How are they feeling?
It's a very uncertain time. There were 240,000 Ukrainians who came to the U.S. to find safety under United for Ukraine and they entered with a humanitarian parole, which is a kind of immigration status. We're concerned about the potential revocation of Ukrainian humanitarian parole. One of the things that we have done at Opening Doors is work with all of our Ukrainian clients to assess them for their eligibility for other immigration statuses.
Just in the past few weeks, we have helped as many as we could apply for temporary protected status. One of the main risks with the potential revocation of humanitarian parole is that along with that, individuals may lose their work authorization.
So we are hopeful that if a Ukrainian who has humanitarian parole has an application in for temporary protected status, that they may be able to retain their work authorization. But I think a lot remains to be seen with this administration.
