19-03-2025
After funding freeze, refugee dollars flowing to Texas again but program's fate uncertain
After a six-week federal funding freeze that decimated refugee services in Texas, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday released $47 million to the state's refugee services designee.
The health department, which includes the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, stopped sending such reimbursements to states across the country in early February. For reasons that remain unclear, the pause continued in Texas even after all other states started receiving reimbursements again.
That prompted a lawsuit from the Catholic Charities of Fort Worth, which runs the nonprofit Texas Office for Refugees, the designee that distributes reimbursements to the state's 29 refugee services providers. At a hearing in the case last Friday, a Justice Department lawyer announced that the agency had completed an unspecified type of review of the nonprofit office and of Catholic Charities – a process that had apparently delayed the release of funds – and would soon send money to cover the requested reimbursements.
'I was very glad it happened, so that we can continue our work,' said Simone Talma-Flowers, executive director of Interfaith Action of Central Texas, the largest local provider of English-language learning programs for refugees. 'We can continue serving refugees, teaching English language instruction, youth, mentoring, health and wellness. This is all very good news for us.'
Previously: Amid lawsuit, feds say they will end funding freeze on Texas refugee services
Neither Catholic Charities nor the Texas Office for Refugee responded to a request for comment.
While leaders of other Texas refugee service providers are relieved, they also say it's going to take a long time to recover from the furloughs, layoffs and other cost-cutting measures they had to use to get by.
They also are bracing for an even bigger challenge.
On Friday, the same day as the court hearing, the Trump administration published a policy letter saying it plans to stop sending reimbursements to the Texas Office for Refugees and other state designees in October when the new federal budget cycle begins.
That would affect Texas and 13 other states, where designees exist because the state government has chosen not to accept federal dollars intended to support refugees.
Anjum Malik, executive director of Austin-based refugee service provider Global Impact Initiative, said the letter adds to the sense of ongoing uncertainty that has already taken rooted within many organizations.
Dig in: Refugees in Austin, across Texas, still struggling amid mysterious pause in federal funding
'This is a first,' Malik said. 'Everybody's confused about it.'
Malik said her organization on Tuesday received the $100,000 it was owed, but that she is still trying to make sense how, and to what extent, it can begin the arduous process of rebuilding services.
Because the refugee service system is based on reimbursements of past expenses, Malik said she is still without the funds to hire back the 14 employees she furloughed. As she attempts to do so, she will have to apply for additional reimbursements and hope they are processed. This, along with continued fixed costs, like rent and software services, makes it rocky to rebuild.
Yet even as she makes plans to bring staff back, she is writing recommendation letters for many of those same employees, who are looking for new jobs. With so few guarantees in the industry, she said she can't blame the workers.
The past weeks 'shook the confidence out of the refugees and out of us,' Malik said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: In Texas, refugee dollars flowing again, but program's fate uncertain
