Latest news with #GlobalRefuge
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge orders Trump administration to facilitate return of second deported man
A federal judge in Maryland ordered the return of a second man deported by the Trump administration to a Salvadoran prison, saying his removal violated a court settlement she approved in 2019. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, an appointee of President Trump, ordered the return of a Venezuelan man referred to in court documents only as Cristian, while blocking the administration from removing anyone else protected by the settlement. Gallagher said that 20-year-old Cristian was among those who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, protected from removal while they were permitted to seek asylum. 'Defendants are hereby ORDERED to facilitate Class Member Cristian's return to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits,' she wrote in the Wednesday order. The decision comes after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man and Salvadoran national who had also been protected from deportation to El Salvador. The Justice Department has been fighting that order as well as a Supreme Court decision upholding it that ordered the Trump administration to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return. That has prompted Xinis to order depositions and written questions between the parties to determine whether to hold any Trump officials in contempt. The Trump administration has argued facilitating Abrego Garcia's return requires only sending a plane if the Salvadoran government agrees to release him. President Nayib Bukele has said he will not do so. Gallagher's order appears to nod to that struggle, writing that 'facilitation includes, but is not limited to, a good faith request by Defendants to the government of El Salvador to release Cristian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States.' For immigration advocates, the second case is a sign there could be more men among those sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison whose removal was in defiance of various protections. 'The second deportee that's being required to be returned, but I think that's incredibly important, because it is clear to those closely following the Garcia case that it doesn't appear to be isolated,' Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, told The Hill. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
11-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
DHS ends protections from deportation for Afghanistan, Cameroon
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has stripped protections from deportation for Afghans and Cameroonians in the U.S., calling into question the ability of some Afghan evacuees to remain in America. Citizens of both countries have been protected by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) since 2022, protecting anyone already in the U.S. from being sent back to either country due to dangerous conditions and instability. While courts have blocked similar efforts by Noem for other countries, the move nevertheless creates uncertainty for those set to lose the status. 'The secretary determined that Afghanistan no longer continues to meet the statutory requirements for its T.P.S. designation and so she terminated T.P.S. for Afghanistan,' said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the agency. The statement said Noem had done so on March 21, the statutory deadline for reviewing whether to continue protections but in place under the Biden administration. Noem did so for Cameroon on April 7, as that country's protections are set to expire in June. The New York Times first reported the decision. The move was swiftly condemned by Afghan advocates, who pointed to deteriorating conditions in the country that have accelerated since the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, including widespread food insecurity. 'TPS exists for a reason: to protect people whose return to their country would place them in grave danger. Afghanistan today is still reeling from Taliban rule, economic collapse, and humanitarian disaster. Nothing about that reality has changed,' Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, a refugee resettlement agency, said in a statement. 'Terminating protections for Afghans is a morally indefensible betrayal of allies who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us to advance American interests throughout our country's longest war.' Many of the roughly 80,000 Afghans who came to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul have adjusted their status, either securing asylum or a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) given to those who assisted U.S. military efforts there. But many are still protected under TPS. The Biden administration last renewed TPS for Afghanistan in September 2023, with protectees set to lose the status in May of this year. DHS previously estimated that approximately 14,600 Afghans would be eligible under the latest redesignation of TPS. 'Extraordinary and temporary conditions, including lack of access to food, clean water, and healthcare, as well as destroyed infrastructure, internal displacement, and economic instability continue to prevent Afghan nationals from returning to their homeland in safety,' the Biden administration determined at the time. A federal judge last week temporarily blocked Noem's rescission of TPS for Venezuelans, determining that the decision was 'motivated at least in part by animus' and that her decision was 'entirely lacking in evidentiary support.' However, while Noem sought to vacate protections for Venezuelans, the latest moves would let existing protections expire. The decision could still face challenges on the grounds that it is unsafe to return Afghan nationals to the country. DHS noted that 'if the Secretary determines that the country no longer meets the statutory conditions for designation, she must terminate the designation.' The agency said it will explain its rationale for doing so in a forthcoming notice on the federal register.
The Independent
18-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Takeaways from AP's reporting on U.S.-allied Afghan refugees struggling for basic support
Rahmani worked for a U.S.-backed organization in Kabul, which put him at risk of Taliban retribution. Now, the father of two is among thousands of newly arrived refugees who lost financial assistance when the Trump administration cut off funding for the federal refugee program in January. He moved here in November through the vetted form of legal migration. To fast-track self-sufficiency, it provides refugees with wraparound services for three months — help with housing, food and job placement — while other federal grants support their first five years. Instead, Rahmani's relocation services were largely halted after only two months, when the Trump administration upended the refugee program. He otherwise would have qualified for extended rental assistance for up to six months. He has spent weeks looking for work, with no luck. Unable to pay his rent, his anxiety mounts by the day. Here's a look at key elements of the plight he and his family face. Resettlement agencies are reeling from disruption of funding Rahmani is a client of Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a local faith-based resettlement agency that is waiting on $3.7 million in federal funding for work it has already provided. LSSNCA has struggled to make payroll, and its support services have fallen like dominoes after it was forced to lay off 75 people and furlough seven others. Two-thirds of its clients are Afghan allies, who were offered visas and protection in the United States after the Taliban returned to power. These Afghans worked alongside U.S. troops or, like Rahmani, were employed by U.S.-backed organizations. Rahmani is identified using only one of his names because he still fears for his family's safety. The risk of widespread evictions By early March, at least 42 households under LSSNCA's care had received eviction notices, putting nearly 170 people in Virginia and Maryland on the edge of homelessness, with more — like Rahmani's family — at risk. The staff has been fundraising and negotiating with landlords to stave off evictions. The organization raised $500,000 in six weeks, but that doesn't fill the gap left by frozen government funds. Global Refuge is the parent organization of LSSNCA and has long served as one of 10 national agencies partnering with the federal government to resettle refugees. It has received no federal reimbursements for work done since Inauguration Day and has laid off hundreds of staff. Nearly 6,000 refugees in its care were within 90 days of arrival, the initial aid window, when it received a stop-work order from the Trump administration. Across resettlement agencies nationwide, support for at least 30,000 recent arrivals was affected. At LSSNCA, 369 people were within their first 90 days in the U.S., and another 850 clients were eligible for longer-term services. 'We're seeing the de facto wholesale destruction of a longstanding bipartisan program that saved millions of lives,' said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge. Refugees fled instability, only to find more of it in the U.S. LSSNCA's capacity has been stretched thin before. The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 led to a surge of Afghans being resettled in the U.S. LSSNCA went from serving 500 people a year to 500 people a month. They staffed up to deal with the influx of Afghans, with case managers working long hours. The quality of their work suffered: Federal reimbursements were often delayed, and they struggled to provide services. The difference then was they knew the federal government backed their work. Marjila Badakhsh came to the U.S. in December of 2021. A journalist who worked for a U.S.-funded Afghan media organization, she was evacuated from Kabul and resettled in Virginia. Once a LSSNCA client, she was later hired at the organization, only to be laid off in January when the agency received its stop-work order. 'After three years, with one policy I'm thinking that I'm back to the day that I came to the United States for the first time, and I should start again,' she said. She stays busy applying to jobs in Virginia and California, where her brother — who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan — was recently resettled. But her dreams of one day welcoming their parents and sister to the U.S. are on hold after the suspension of the U.S. refugee program. The courts are still weighing in Lawsuits against the Trump administration have been filed over its immigration policies, with one judge ruling in favor of three faith-based resettlement agencies. In a recent court filing, administration lawyers argued that initial refugee benefits are 'not required by law.' They indicated it would take months to comply with a court order to restart the program. This week, Global Refuge received some federal reimbursements for its work during the Biden administration. Those funds came through the Department of Health and Human Services. Global Refuge has not received federal payments for work done since late January, and it has not received reimbursements for the 90-day aid offered through the State Department, which did not respond to a request for comment. ___ ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Doxxed by Rolling Stone, Utah's ‘DataRepublican' tells us what she's discovered
The Utah software engineer who is drawing nationwide attention from the White House, the media and the world's richest man will tell you the potential of artificial intelligence is best summed up by 1 Samuel Chapter 17. By her reading, AI is not an uncontrollable threat to humanity, it's the slingshot in the hands of David that defeats a government Goliath — and it's the gift that will save America. 'AI gives us the ability to take on massive, entrenched systems that would otherwise be impossible to untangle,' Jennica Pounds told the Deseret News. 'Without it, we'd be fighting blind.' Pounds, a Utah resident who up until two weeks ago was known only by her X account, 'DataRepublican,' burst onto the scene this year as the most viral pioneer of Elon Musk's AI-driven takeover of Washington, D.C. With the creation of a powerful government-spending database, and a pithy online personality, Pounds has taken conservative social media by storm and attracted her own fair share of critics in the process. As some have accused Pounds of copying Musk's unorthodox auditing practices — which recently yielded an 83% reduction of USAID, thousands of federal layoffs and a disputed $105 billion in savings — Musk, in turn, appears to have occasionally taken cues from Pounds. On Jan. 21, Pounds flagged Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with 'a quick billion for you to cut!' that included $229 million to Global Refuge, a faith-based immigrant charity, that is 97% taxpayer funded. Musk, who has the world's largest following on X, of nearly 220 million, responded to her message with one word: 'Noted.' Less than two weeks later — after he encouraged users to follow DataRepublican — Musk announced that the DOGE team was 'rapidly shutting down' federal payments to Global Refuge. Pounds told the Deseret News that while Musk has not reached out privately, DOGE representatives have messaged her multiple times over the past two months. But since a Rolling Stone article revealed her identity, and other personal information, to the world on Feb. 26, Pounds' life as a Salt Lake City business owner, wife and mother of two has been turned on its head. The couple's local distillery has been targeted with bad reviews and the family has been forced to take their elementary-age sons out of school to stay in Florida until things calm down, Pound said. In her first official news interview since her identity became public, Pounds told the Deseret News that despite the stress of public life, she has redoubled her commitment to apply her big tech background to mapping out the web of government connections that she believes has led to unresponsive leadership and wasted taxpayer dollars. For someone who describes herself as deaf and nonverbal, Pounds says AI technology has transformed her relationship with her children by increasing their ability to communicate. Pounds also believes AI has the power to revolutionize the relationship between citizens and their government. 'AI has fundamentally changed the balance of power when it comes to government transparency and accountability,' Pounds wrote via email because she said her autism makes real-time sign language difficult in interviews. For too long, technology has been used by government authorities to surveil and regulate the public, according to Pounds. But with unregulated AI tools in public hands, she predicts that dynamic is about to flip 180 degrees. 'Now, everyday citizens can use AI to analyze government spending, track decisions, and uncover waste and corruption on a scale that was previously impossible,' Pounds said. And Pounds has exactly the skill set to pave the way. As a child without the ability to hear, Pounds felt like most career paths were 'cut off' from her until she discovered programming. From there, her career path became clear: she earned a graduate degree in computer science focused on 'big data' and quickly secured high profile positions at Amazon, eBay and Snap Inc. and Upstart, specializing in massive datasets and machine-learning optimization. These jobs kept Pounds in the Seattle area while her husband, Brent, served in the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Corps. But after discovering hypodermic needles used for drug injection scattered around the playground with her toddler, Pounds said she knew 'we needed a different environment.' The Pounds moved to Utah in 2019, looking for a more welcoming place to raise a family. Within a few years, Pounds found a remote job dealing directly with AI software, while she and her husband opened Spirits of the Wasatch Distillery and she began blending her knowledge of technology with her deepening interest in politics. What started in 2020 as election analysis, creating block-by-block voting breakdowns, quickly morphed into AI 'toolmaking,' creating interactive dashboards to track how political donations are made and who are the recipients. When President Donald Trump signed DOGE into existence in 2025, Pounds decided to switch directions yet again. Pounds learned that to cancel large portions of federal spending, DOGE would need specific ID numbers for grants awarded to nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs. But while the data was all ostensibly public information, Pounds found there was no effective way to search for it. 'Government spending data exists, but without tools to analyze and connect the dots, it's nearly impossible to see the full picture,' said Pounds, who has the motto, 'Data does not equal transparency.' So, Pounds created centered around a 'reverse index' tool that lets users search for organizations and easily find how much federal money they are receiving. It also has features that allow users to track PAC donations, NGO officer salaries and connections between influential policymakers. As the website went viral, Pounds said she realized there was a pattern of overlapping conflicts of interest between elected lawmakers and the private NGO boards they sit on, which she estimates are funded by upwards of $100 billion in taxpayer dollars. 'That's when the mission evolved from simply cutting waste to taking on something much larger: restoring accountability and transparency in our democracy,' Pounds said. In February, Pounds announced she had resigned from her job in order to devote herself 'full time' to 'DOGE-adjacent efforts,' while still remaining independent from the DOGE's White House office. But Pounds told the Deseret News that since media reports have made a return to big tech 'no longer an option," she has decided that 'working within the system is the right path' for her. Pounds said she is unable to 'discuss details about potential employers,' but she hinted at a future 'working within the government,' and previously said she is waiting on a federal 'background check.' While she doesn't always agree with Musk — and feels that pushback from Congress and the courts are necessary checks on executive power — Pounds said that Musk may be the only person who can take on the bloated bureaucracy because of his reputation of successfully disrupting the status quo in the fields of electric vehicles, space travel and neurotechnology. But the 'uncomfortable reality' behind DOGE, according to Pounds, is that as it seeks to trim down unnecessary spending, it will likely find a much deeper problem of ruling establishment misconduct that could be much more difficult to root out. 'It's not just about cutting government waste — it's about confronting the system that enables corruption and unchecked power,' Pounds told the Deseret News. 'If we want real, lasting change — if we want a government that's financially sustainable and accountable to the people — we have to take on the entire system that's choking progress. That's what makes DOGE's work so important." Pounds' ability to pull out datapoints that appear to support claims about a conspiracy among elites has made her a hero among some on the right — Musk, and one of his closest social media allies, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, have both shared or responded to her posts dozens of times over the past several weeks. Lee has repeatedly praised 'DataRepublican' on X, calling her a 'gift to America,' telling his followers to follow her to be 'enlightened' and coming to her defense after news outlets repeated the claims made in the Rolling Stone article. 'The concerned citizen known as Data Republican, whose research has helped root out waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars, is experiencing the sad truth that leftist organizations will go after the families and livelihoods of Americans who dare to challenge the corrupt status quo,' Lee told the Deseret News. 'But, unlike the liberal media, she has millions of grateful Americans on her side — myself included.' The Rolling Stone article in question alleges that Pounds, acting under her social media moniker, DataRepublican, sometimes accuses political actors of malfeasance on shaky grounds. For example, last month, Pounds said that Bill Kristol, an anti-Trump conservative commentator, preferred 'the deep state,' because his advocacy organization, Defending Democracy Together, received money from a nonprofit, that had received money from another nonprofit that ultimately received funds from USAID. While Pounds has put her partisan leanings on display by arguing that 'MAGA voters' need to show up in primary elections to oust incumbents in Congress, and by lobbing attacks at Democratic mega donor George Soros, she says the 'Republican' in her social media handle is with a 'small r' because she carries no party loyalty. In fact, one of the biggest revelations from her deep dive into the federal bureaucracy has been just how bipartisan the conflicts of interest are, Pounds said. 'Yet, instead of equal outrage from both sides, the attacks on me have been overwhelmingly one-sided.' Pounds expressed frustration with the Rolling Stone article because it suggested she advised Musk directly and it insinuated that she was influenced by her prior company's pushback against federal regulation and the company's connection to Peter Thiel, a billionaire Republican donor. But Pounds readily admits that her newfound-fame has come as a result of the recently reelected president who has empowered DOGE in an unprecedented way. 'The sheer scale of government spending and federal programs is too vast for any person, or even a team of people, to fully grasp,' Pounds said. 'Now, with the right people in place and a renewed focus on accountability, we can finally expose what's been hidden for so long. As to whether her career will remain focused on government transparency beyond DOGE's 18-month lifespan, Pounds said her future 'is ultimately in the Lord God's hands.' For now, at least, Pounds hopes her family can return home to Utah to enjoy its 'strong sense of community,' 'emphasis on family,' 'high standards' — and 'widely available energy drinks' — in peace.
CBS News
04-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Global Refuge, headquartered in Baltimore, forced to layoff about 400 employees after Trump directive
Headquartered in Baltimore, Global Refuge, one of the country's oldest and largest organizations serving refugees and immigrants, was forced to lay off nearly 400 people nationwide after the Trump administration placed a freeze on foreign aid. The nonprofit has not received any federal money since December and was handed a stop work order on refugee resettlement, which has forced it to lay off more than half its workforce. The new administration also issued an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), which stops the resettlement of tens of thousands of refugees seeking safety in the United States, according to Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the President and CEO of Global Refuge. "We are struggling because, as a result of the president's executive order, and the stop work order, and on top of that, an unwillingness to pay their bills, organizations like Global Refuge, nonprofits across the country, are suffering." You can learn more about Global Refuge here. "Really essential services" Global Refuge, which started in 1939, supports refugees and migrants entering the United States and need assistance. Despite trying, Vignarajah says the federal government has frozen refugee resettlement funding moving forward and hasn't reimbursed Global Refuge for services already rendered under their grant agreement. The grants help make sure their clients don't go homeless, have food on the table, can navigate public transportation and can enroll their children in public schools. "These are really essential services we are talking about," Vignarajah said. And because Global Refuge hasn't been reimbursed by the federal government, the organization has had to let go of hundreds of employees across the country. "We are on a reimbursement basis," Vignarajah said. "We followed the procedure we've followed for years. Unfortunately, though we have submitted those repayments, which go, not just to us, but nonprofits all across the country. As a result of that, many organizations have had to let go of staff."
