Refugees and resettlement groups brace for a second Trump presidency

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Claudine Irankunda had just led her 3-year-old daughter past the airport security exit on Tuesday when her husband, who she'd last seen in a Rwandan refugee camp more than three years earlier, rushed through the crowds to embrace her.

Gloire Sadiki, a Congolese refugee who resettled here before the U.S. approved his wife to join him, hugged her tightly, a paper flower bouquet in hand. He exhaled with relief at his family's arrival just days before Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, when he worries that the U.S. resettlement door may slam shut.

“If they didn’t come this month” their separation might face an uncertain extension, said Sadiki, hugging the child he’d only known as an infant. “Now I start my life in the U.S.”

Across the country, refugee communities and resettlement agencies are bracing for the possibility that Trump will halt or curtail the U.S. refugee program – moves that would stymie thousands of long-awaited resettlements.

Trump, who has portrayed the program as vulnerable to security concerns, vowed at a rally last year that, “on day one” he would “restore the travel ban, suspend refugee admissions, stop the resettlement and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country.”  

During Trump’s first term, he sought to block travel of immigrants from some Muslim-majority nations, temporarily halted admissions and slashed annual admittance caps to historic lows. The resulting funding cuts hobbled or closed some U.S. resettlement organizations.

But supporters say the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which has historically had bipartisan support, represents some of the country’s most vulnerable and vetted immigrants, people who contribute to their new communities.

How closely campaign rhetoric will translate into policy isn’t yet certain. A Trump transition spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. And attention to the refugee program could be overshadowed by Trump’s larger plans to enact mass deportations.

But many resettlement organizations, which help refugees find housing, learn English and find jobs, say they expect admissions to be cut sharply, undercutting a program President Joe Biden rebuilt to resettle more than 100,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024, reaching a 30-year high.

In recent weeks, some advocates have been urging people to call lawmakers in support, trying to finalize already approved resettlements and gearing up to court volunteers and donations if cuts materialize.

Refugee advocates say another pullback by the U.S., the world’s largest resettlement destination, could also fuel rising anti-refugee sentiment in other countries at a time when wars and humanitarian crises have pushed the number of global refugees to nearly 44 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“Ending refugee resettlement as we know it would be devastating, not only to thousands of families desperate for safety, but also to our reputation as a global humanitarian leader,” said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, a faith-based nonprofit that aids refugees. “When we step back, other countries use that as an excuse to also shut their borders.”

Rebuilt refugee program faces uncertain future

In 2021, Tamim Bedar rushed to escape from the Taliban as it overtook Afghanistan amid the U.S. withdrawal. Because the Afghan citizen worked for aid and development groups that supported the American mission, he was in danger of reprisal.

He evacuated on a U.S. flight, later starting a new life with his family in Louisville with the help of a refugee resettlement agency. He placed his kids in school, eventually bought a home, and he has applied for permanent residency.

But his brother, also at risk because of his security jobs with a U.S.-based organization and the former Afghan government, didn’t make it. So far, logistics and other barriers have kept him from navigating the U.S. refugee program to safety, but Bedar hasn’t given up.

Now, however, “there is a fear that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program will significantly slow down under the new administration,” Bedar said.

Shawn VanDiver, who heads ​​#AfghanEvac, a coalition assisting Afghan refugees, has urged the incoming administration to continue issuing Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans who worked directly with U.S. forces. There are also 30,000 to 40,000 Afghans and their families who worked for civil society or other groups. They don’t qualify for special visas, he said, and need to be resettled as traditional refugees.

Since the 1980 Refugee Act, more than 3 million refugees have been resettled after facing persecution or a humanitarian crisis. In fiscal year 2023, more than two-thirds of resettled refugees came from The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar. 

In contrast to people who seek asylum after arriving at a U.S. border, refugees are referred by the United Nations refugee agency and must apply while overseas. (Only around one percent of all refugees are referred for third-country resettlement.) They undergo security checks by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence, medical screening and interviews in a process that often takes years. 

Once approved, they’re resettled through ten refugee resettlement agencies, many faith-based, that work with the program and local affiliates across the country to help refugees find housing, healthcare and jobs. They can eventually apply for citizenship.

Though some critics object to the costs, a federal study found that over a 15-year period, refugees contributed $123 billion more than they have cost in governmental expenditures.

But the program is also one where presidents can set admissions caps each year and can hit pause. George W. Bush did so temporarily after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. 

During his first term, Trump sought to stop refugee travel temporarily, enacting “extreme vetting” that slowed security checks and reduced annual admissions to 11,814 in 2020. Lack of funding that follows refugees and other measures caused cuts and closures to resettlement groups, reducing overall resettlement capacity by 38%, according to the Migration Policy Insitute.

“Some cities that had four or five resettlement agencies, ended up with only one or none,”  said Erol Kekic, senior vice president for programs at Church World Service.

Biden restored the program – adding funding and staff and accelerating application processing. Admission interviews rose from 1,252 to 159,394 between 2020 and 2024, federal figures show. 

Still, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which set possible priorities for a second Trump term, called for reducing refugee admissions.

Along with halting admissions for a review or stopping resettlement from certain countries, Trump could also renew political support for giving states the right to refuse the resettlement of refugees, said Chris Opila, a staff attorney at the American Immigration Council.

While the courts blocked such an executive order during his first term, Trump now has a conservative majority on the Supreme Court and more support in Congress.

For now, it’s mainly uncertainty that hangs over refugees awaiting resettlement or family reunification in towns large and small across the country. 

Bracing for change 

Kashidi Sungura is among those who have been holding their breath. 

Sungura, 48, fled violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo years ago. Amid chaos and violence, she was separated from her two young sons. She spent more than a decade in a Tanzanian refugee camp, tortured by their disappearance.

It was only after she was resettled to northwest Arkansas in 2019 with her five other children that she learned her sons, now in their 20s, were alive. The family sought to reunite and recently seemed to be close to finishing all the approvals, including undergoing DNA testing. 

But by this week, they still hadn’t been booked to travel. She fears that changes to the program will lead to long setbacks. To remain eligible, people registered as refugees cannot return to their country, advocates said.

 “It hurts a lot to think about it,” she said.

Joanna Krause, the executive director of the resettlement group Canopy Northwest Arkansas, said such angst isn’t uncommon. Her agency has six families with flights scheduled for dates after the inauguration.

In recent weeks, refugee advocates say that amid the increasing politicization of refugee resettlement, they've been working to publicly distinguish the difference between immigrants who cross the border without permission and well-vetted refugees who arrive legally.

In North Carolina, Randy Carter, a pastor at Durham Temple Baptist Church, said his congregation has provided shelter and other help to new refugees. But he has seen more conservative churches reluctant to do the same amid questions by some church members over security concerns. He said people also often conflate different types of immigration pathways.

In Wisconsin, some communities have had fierce debates over welcoming refugees, according to news reports. Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, introduced a bill in Congress last year to give states and local governments power to reject such placements.

Last month, Tiffany wrote to refugee officials saying that constituents were concerned that resettlement plans were being made in central Wisconsin with little local input.

But for those such as Irankunda who arrived this week ahead of the administration change, the debate over policies faded into the background amid the joy of reuniting with family. 

Waiting for her was a caseworker with Catholic Charities, one of Louisville's two resettlement agencies. Ahead would be help. Cultural orientations, health screenings, job training and eventually enrolling her daughter in school. She’d learn about bus routes and health insurance. Her husband already has a job and a place for them to live.

For now, Sadiki said he was simply glad he didn’t have to make an impossible choice: To face more years without his wife and child, or to return to the refugee camp where he’d spent most of his life. 

After taking photos, the pair walked arm in arm, their child holding a bag of potato chips, smiling as they walked to the escalator to get her bags and begin their life together anew.