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Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vigil held in Elizabethtown supports immigrants and refugees
ELIZABETHTOWN — Concern for others continues to circulate throughout the North Country as citizens gathered on the lawn of the Essex County Government Center to bring awareness as to what has been happening to immigrants and refugees. Organized by Adirondack Friends of Refugees and Immigrants, the event was held to counter assertions made by the Trump administration. Compiled by AFRI and supported with fact-checked details were the following: • Immigrants do not increase crime. They are arrested at half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes, and one-fourth the rate for property crimes. • Immigrants have a positive impact on the economy and pay more into the system than take out. • Immigrants work at jobs Americans don't want while increasing commerce, which leads to job growth. In addition, immigrants bring different skills to the work force. Immigrants provide cutting edge innovation • Undocumented immigrant taxes shore up and do not deplete federal welfare benefits such as Social Security. 'SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT' AFRI chairperson Cynthia Poppino added to the details such as, '300 green card holders are being detained for organizing protests on behalf of the Palestinian people. Our tax dollars are paying for privatized detention centers which incentivize them to keep detaining refugees and immigrants as long as possible.' AFRI vice chair Bob Harsh brought out numerous points which were accentuated by Bobbi Perez ringing a bell after each statement, to which the gathering responded by saying, 'We shall overcome.' Among Harsh's 14 statements were: We mourn the loss of the Welcome Corps and Catholic Charities programs and the Afghan family that was supposed to come to Plattsburgh; We mourn the loss of freedom of speech; We pray for the protection of birthright citizenship, and for those whose temporary protected status is being revoked; We protest the violations of due process and the disinformation being spread about immigrants. Dick Perez remarked, 'In my heart of hearts I know something is not right. I wake up in the morning and don't know what to do about it, and take one step ahead of the other. Our leaders and president say the least of us don't matter. They are doing everything Jesus Christ told us not to do in treating others. We hear more and more about collateral damage; of those being swept up under the guise of being criminals.' 'THIS IS A VIGIL' As he was about to speak, a shout-out from a passing vehicle exclaimed 'Go Trump! Yahoo!' to which the Rev. Lauren McArthur responded, 'This is a vigil, we don't have to outshout them.' McArthur then continued, 'I remember reading in the Bible an important lesson that we all come from a single seed. We are all one.' Those in attendance then sang, 'This Land is Your Land' and 'If I had a Hammer.' OPPOSING VIEWPOINT Near the conclusion of the rally, Jeremy Armstrong presented a different viewpoint. 'I love my country. We wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for Biden and Obama (He also blamed his domestic problems on them). We are hurting people; people who pay taxes. You want to repeat history that has ruined us. I don't agree with everything Trump and Elon says; some of their outrageous stuff. 'A lot of our problems start with immigration; the problems they have here in New York state. I agree with having immigrants if they come here legally.' Armstrong spoke of some of misuse he witnessed such as seven people using one person's green card to get paid. 'I don't feel my tax money should go to help them. Our government has been crooked since the 1980s.' Although the rally was intended to emphasize the plight of refugees and immigrants some of the hand-written signs expressed dissatisfaction with other aspects of the current administration. They included: $$$ for Education; No to Project 2025; One Love-The Human Race; Inhumanity is not an American Value. Trump crosses the border of decency; Our America is in distress; and several references to Elon Musk whom they felt should be deported.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Myanmar refugee had secured family's escape to Tri-Cities. Then Trump took office
Myint Myint 'Mimi' Sein has been fighting for more than six years to get her cousin and his family out of a refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border. Nearly 40 years ago, she and her family fled Myanmar in fear of the erupting violence. It took them 15 years to find safety in the Tri-Cities as refugees. Sein still remembers horrific experiences throughout her journey — as a young mother escaping the military's mass killings of civilians, giving birth to her daughter in the jungle along the border of Thailand and watching her mother die of cerebral malaria. Now the 62-year-old grandmother is a U.S. citizen and is helping her cousin, his wife and two daughters get to Washington state. He and his wife fled Myanmar in 1998. They've lived in the same refugee camp for 16 years. Both daughters, 11 and 14, were born there and have known no other home. In January, the family of four was at the final stage in the process for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. They were waiting for their flights to Pasco to be scheduled. Just when it looked like they'd soon be headed to the Tri-Cities, President Donald Trump suspended refugee admissions and resettlement. Now they don't know when, or if, they'll be able to try again. Refugees are legal immigrants forced to flee their home country because of persecution, war, violence or other threats. In most cases, they cannot return home because their lives would be put at risk. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) determines if a person fits the definition of a refugee and whether to refer them to the U.S. or to another country where they would resettle. Less than than 1% of refugees worldwide are ever considered for resettlement. Before arriving in the U.S., potential refugees must complete an extensive application and vetting process by multiple government agencies and partners. It includes background and security checks, interviews and health screenings. The process can take up to two years. Sein has been advocating for her cousin and his family to travel to the U.S. to resettle. Last April, she submitted an application to sponsor them through Welcome Corps, a U.S. State department program launched in 2023. The family completed required medical exams, interviews and a cultural orientation from October to December. But then the Trump administration cut off the federal refugee program with an executive order. It's unclear if the program will be allowed to restart after a review scheduled for later this year. The executive order says the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, will advise the president within three months whether it should resume. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has suffered decades of repressive military rule, poverty and civil war with ethnic minority groups. Myanmar's brutal army stifled nationwide pro-democracy protests in August and September 1988, arresting and killing thousands. Many of them were students. Around 3,000 protesters were killed in the 8888 uprising. Sein was one of the thousands fleeing Myanmar to neighboring countries. She made it to the Tri-Cities in August 2003, along with her husband Kyaw Swe, their son and two daughters. She became a U.S. citizen six years later. More recently, the Myanmar military staged a coup in 2021 and took power. Four years later, the nation is still in free fall, facing economic collapse, violent conflict, climate hazards, hunger and poverty, according to the United Nations. Nearly a third of the country's population — 20 million — is expected to need humanitarian aid in 2025. There are currently around 1.5 million refugees from Myanmar worldwide. Thailand hosts over 90,000 of those refugees in nine refugee camps run by the Royal Thai Government, according to the UNHCR. At the Noh Poe (Nu Po) refugee camp, Sein's cousin and his family were making plans to travel from Thailand to the Tri-Cities. But now their situation is at a standstill. 'They were hopeful,' Sein said. 'They knew they might go to the United States. The process was almost done. Especially the two girls. They were so excited.' Refugee camps offer temporary safety and assistance, and meet refugees' basic needs like food, water, shelter and medical treatment. Children in the camps are vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and violence, and may have inadequate educational opportunities. Sein last saw her cousin more than 30 years ago when she and her mother visited the village where he lived in Myanmar. She talks to him and his family every week through the Messenger app. She said she doesn't know what to tell him and his family to help them cope. 'They have depression,' Sein said. 'They are so sad.' 'Hopefully, after three months, President Trump will change his mind and they can come here.' When Sein and her family arrived in Washington in 2003, they received support from World Relief Tri-Cities, Southeast Washington's only refugee resettlement agency. Sein began working at World Relief in 2007 as a translator and currently works as a refugee resettlement coordinator. She has been partnering with other World Relief staff to stay in contact with her cousin and help him and his family join her in the Tri-Cities by forming a sponsor group. But she's facing a new challenge — she was laid off from the nonprofit in February. She's currently looking for a new job. The Trump administration's wide-reaching immigration policies and freeze in funding have rocked immigrant service organizations worldwide. After the U.S. refugee program was suspended, federal agencies issued stop-work orders and paused federal funds that are critical for refugee resettlement and humanitarian groups to operate. As a result, World Relief Tri-Cities was forced to furlough 30%, or 31 of its employees — many of them former refugees — in early February, including Sein. The organization, based in Richland, has helped nearly 1,900 refugees resettle in the Tri-Cities from 2019 to 2024, including about 50 people from Myanmar. Sein, along with her husband, their 3-month-old son and her parents fled Myanmar in 1988, heading south from their home in the city of Yangon to the tropical jungle in Karen State on the Thai border. They left behind their lives in the city — Sein was a middle school teacher with her bachelor's degree in economics. Her husband was a police officer. She and her family lived in the jungle for 12 years, moving constantly, building shelter out of bamboo and doing anything to survive. Sein said that she constantly feared for her life. She remembers hearing gunshots popping in the jungle. She worried about being tortured or killed. 'All the time we were stressed,' she said. 'I didn't know how to keep going. I had to keep everybody together.' Even when she slept, she didn't feel safe. Other dangers included disease-carrying mosquitoes, water-borne illness, lack of food and running water, extreme heat, unsafe living conditions and large, venomous snakes. After more than 10 years in the jungle, Sein and her family crossed the Thai border from Myanmar to join one of her cousins. In 2000, they lived together in a camp for Burmese students and refugees in Bangkok. Then the camp was moved to the Thai-Myanmar border. For two years, Sein and her family lived in the Tham Hin refugee camp. Their time in Thailand was also difficult — Sein and her husband couldn't work because they did not have legal status and there was little to no access to education for their three young children. Sein didn't speak the Thai language. In the refugee camp, the family and her father shared a small room with floor mattresses and blankets, separated from other families by a bed sheet. 'It was so sad. We didn't know about the future,' she said. 'We had a lot of trauma. Also, I had three kids so I worried about their education. I wasn't going to work.' Her father then died of tuberculosis at the camp. Then at one point, Sein's husband had a car accident and needed care. She started to train as a medic and volunteer at a health clinic where he was being treated, in exchange for housing and food. At the clinic, Sein met a visiting British doctor who helped her and her family travel to United Nations Asia in Bangkok, where they could begin the refugee process. Sein, her husband, her son and two daughters applied and registered to a U.N. list of refugees awaiting resettlement. Every month, the U.N. sent staff to their refugee camp to tell people they'd been approved by another country, and it was their turn to leave Thailand and resettle. Sein remembers the day when U.N. staff took photos of her and her family for documentation. They completed interviews, health screenings and cultural orientation. Finally, in 2003, she learned that she and her family were matched to travel to the U.S. A large group of refugees was picked up at the camp and driven to the Bangkok airport. Sein and her family received help taking flights to travel from Bangkok to Japan to Los Angeles to Seattle to the Tri-Cities, arriving on Aug. 6, 2003. In Washington, Sein initially struggled with cultural differences and only knew a little English. Eventually, she became fluent in English and has worked for more than 15 years at World Relief helping other refugees. Her husband worked at Walmart for 12 years before retiring. Sein remains deeply grateful for the opportunity to resettle in the Tri-Cities. She and her family have made it their home, but never lose sight of their roots. She has positive memories of her childhood and university education in Myanmar. 'I miss it, but I will never go back,' she said. At her home in Kennewick, Sein and her family enjoy cooking curries, vegetables and rice. She attends a local Buddhist temple and relies on her faith for strength. Sein is proud of her children's achievements. They studied at Columbia Basin College and Washington State University. Her son is a technician in Kennewick and Sein is a grandmother to his 6-year-old son. One of her daughters is a teacher currently working abroad in Spain, and her other daughter is an accountant and lives in Richland. 'We have low incomes, but our life is rich,' Sein said.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Refugee resettlement in U.S. creates major positive impact
Refugees haven't been welcome in the United States since the first day of President Donald Trump's second term, when he signed an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 90 days. Despite a February 2025 federal court order to resume refugee resettlement, the administration has said that won't be happening any time soon because the country's refugee system has been so thoroughly dismantled. Trump's Jan. 20 executive order discontinued regular refugee processing and halted all federal funding for refugee resettlement. It ended the State Department's 2023 Welcome Corps program, which allowed U.S. citizens to privately sponsor refugees, as well as a program that resettled children from Central America and certain family members. Trump also suspended the follow-to-join visas that reunited refugee families. Together, these programs make up the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Created in 1980, the program resettles refugees nationwide through partnerships between the government and U.S.-based resettlement agencies. It had made the United States the global leader in refugee resettlement. As a scholar of refugees and displacement, I expect refugee admissions to remain close to zero for the rest of Trump's term. Thousands of refugees, both at home and abroad, will suffer as a result. So will the many Americans who work within the country's sprawling refugee resettlement network. Brief history of U.S. refugee policies Under U.S. and international law, refugees are people fleeing "persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution" due to race, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, religion or national origin. While refugees have come to the United States since its founding, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 was the country's first official "refugee" law. The act, which expired in 1952, allowed more than 350,000 European refugees displaced by World War II to enter the United States within the constraints of an existing quota system that defined how many refugees the country would admit each year, and from which countries. Between 1952 and 1980, numerous international refugee crises spurred Congress to pass a series of laws welcoming certain groups into the country. Political calculations played a major role in these decisions. For instance, as part of America's Cold War, anti-Communist strategy, Congress passed laws in 1962 and 1966 giving tens of thousands of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro's regime sanctuary in the United States. In the 1970s and 1980s, following its loss to communist North Vietnam in the Vietnam War, the United States welcomed approximately 1.4 million refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In 1980, Congress passed the Refugee Act, which amended existing law to raise the annual ceiling for refugees and created a formal process for refugee resettlement. Every year, through presidential determination, the president, in consultation with Congress, establishes refugee admissions levels. This decision takes into account U.S. national interests and international humanitarian crises. The caps are announced in the fall. On average, since 1980, the annual presidential determination number has exceeded 95,000 people. Since 2000, Presidential determinations have ranged from a low of 27,131 -- after the 9/11 attacks -- to last year's ceiling of 125,000 refugees per year. How to get refugee status To vet potential refugees and assist qualifying refugees in the resettlement process, several U.S. government agencies coordinate closely: the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services. To qualify for consideration, refugees must be living overseas. The resettlement process begins with registration with the U.N. Refugee Agency. U.N. officials collect documentation and perform an initial screening, and then refer qualifying individuals to one of seven U.S. State Department resettlement support centers worldwide. State Department officials interview applicants and submit them to a rigorous screening that includes an FBI background check. Highly trained immigration officers posted overseas then try to confirm whether applicants meet the legal standards of a refugee. They conduct face-to-face interviews to verify who they are and what forced them to flee. Testimonies are evaluated for consistency with country conditions. The process takes 18 to 36 months or longer. Once refugees are accepted into the United States, 10 national refugee resettlement agencies in coordination with local nonprofit partners support them during their first 90 days in the country. Previous suspensions Critics of resettlement, including Trump, have argued that refugees threaten U.S. national security, are unvetted and do not assimilate into the U.S. economy and society. However, research show that refugees contribute both economically and socially through taxes and entrepreneurship. They also revitalize towns with declining populations. Between 2005 and 2019, refugees yielded a net positive fiscal impact of $123.8 billion, at both federal and state levels, and generated an estimated $581 billion for governments at all levels. A 2023 American Immigration Council report found that the spending power of refugees in just one state, California, totaled more than $20.7 billion. There is no link between refugees and crime, nor is there any notable link to terrorism. Although the 9/11 attacks were not committed by refugees, President George W. Bush in 2001 suspended refugee admissions for several months, leaving 23,000 refugees already approved for resettlement in limbo, mainly in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Many had sold their belongings and homes in anticipation of moving to the United States. In 2017, in his first term in office, Trump issued executive order 13769. The directive suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days and barred entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- for 90 days. It also indefinitely banned Syrian refugees. Trump also lowered the annual refugee admissions cap, from 110,000 in 2017 to 45,000 in 2018, and continued dropping it each year. By 2021, his administration had set the lowest refugee cap in U.S. history, at 15,000. What happens when refugee resettlement pauses The second suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program drastically affected refugees waiting abroad for resettlement and those already in the United States. Arabic-speaking refugees in particular struggled with discrimination and psychosocial challenges such as stress and other medical issues, leading to poorer social integration. The U.S. economy suffered, too. One researcher estimated that Trump's 2017 suspension of refugee resettlement deprived the country of $9.1 billion in economic activity per year and sapped public coffers at all levels of government of over $2 billion a year. More than 300 Americans who worked in refugee resettlement were laid off in 2017 alone. Trump's Muslim ban created an enormous backlog of immigration cases. In 2021, for instance, the incoming Biden administration inherited petitions for 25,994 unprocessed refugee family reunification cases. Many other vetted refugees were not allowed entry, including U.S.-affiliated Iraqis and Afghans who remained trapped in violent contexts. Immediate impact of Trump's order Similar repercussions are already seen today. As of Jan. 22, the Trump administration had canceled the flights of 10,000 vetted refugees into the United States. Most of them were coming from the 10 countries from which the United States had accepted refugees in recent years, including Venezuela, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sudan and Iraq. These refugees are now at acute risk of persecution and violence. Recently arrived refugees, who would normally receive assistance for their first 90 days, are likewise losing support for basic essentials, such as warm clothing, food and housing assistance. Resettlement agencies nationwide are also feeling the pain of Trump cutting federal funding for refugee resettlement. Several nonprofits have lost millions in government contracts allocated to assist new arrivals. They were forced to fire dozens or in some cases hundreds of staffers. Three refugee resettlement agencies have sued the federal government for withholding congressionally appropriated funding for refugee processing and services. On Feb. 25, a federal judge in Seattle agreed with the plaintiffs in Pacito vs. Trump that Trump likely exceeded his authority and temporarily blocked the refugee program's suspension. The legal battle over America's refugee system has just begun. History suggests everyone involved with the program and the U.S. economy will suffer for years to come. ">Tazreena Sajjad is a senior professorial lecturer of global governance, politics and security at the American University School of International Service. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely the views of the author.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
I study refugees, and here are the facts on the history and impact of refugee resettlement in the US
Refugees haven't been welcome in the United States since the first day of President Donald Trump's second term, when he signed an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 90 days. Despite a February 2025 federal court order to resume refugee resettlement, the administration has said that won't be happening any time soon because the country's refugee system has been so thoroughly dismantled. Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, executive order discontinued regular refugee processing and halted all federal funding for refugee resettlement. It ended the State Department's 2023 Welcome Corps program, which allowed U.S. citizens to privately sponsor refugees, as well as a program that resettled children from Central America and certain family members. Trump also suspended the follow-to-join visas that reunited refugee families. Together, these programs make up the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Created in 1980, the program resettles refugees nationwide through partnerships between the government and U.S.-based resettlement agencies. It had made the U.S. the global leader in refugee resettlement. As a scholar of refugees and displacement, I expect refugee admissions to remain close to zero for the rest of Trump's term. Thousands of refugees, both at home and abroad, will suffer as a result. So will the many Americans who work within the country's sprawling refugee resettlement network. Under U.S. and international law, refugees are people fleeing 'persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution' due to race, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, religion or national origin. While refugees have come to the U.S. since its founding, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 was the country's first official 'refugee' law. The act, which expired in 1952, allowed more than 350,000 European refugees displaced by World War II to enter the U.S. within the constraints of an existing quota system that defined how many refugees the country would admit each year, and from which countries. Between 1952 and 1980, numerous international refugee crises spurred Congress to pass a series of laws welcoming certain groups into the country. Political calculations played a major role in these decisions. For instance, as part of America's Cold War anti-Communist strategy, Congress passed laws in 1962 and 1966 giving tens of thousands of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro's regime sanctuary in the U.S. In the 1970s and 1980s, following its loss to communist North Vietnam in the Vietnam War, the U.S. welcomed approximately 1.4 million refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In 1980, Congress passed the Refugee Act, which amended existing law to raise the annual ceiling for refugees and created a formal process for refugee resettlement. Every year, through presidential determination, the president in consultation with Congress establishes refugee admissions levels. This decision takes into account U.S. national interests and international humanitarian crises. The caps are announced in the fall. On average, since 1980, the annual presidential determination number has exceeded 95,000 people. Since 2000, Presidential determinations have ranged from a low of 27,131 – after the 9/11 attacks – to last year's ceiling of 125,000 refugees per year. To vet potential refugees and assist qualifying refugees in the resettlement process, several U.S. government agencies coordinate closely: The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services. To qualify for consideration, refugees must be living overseas. The resettlement process begins with registration with the U.N. Refugee Agency. U.N. officials collect documentation and perform an initial screening, then refer qualifying individuals to one of seven U.S. State Department resettlement support centers worldwide. State Department officials interview applicants and submit them to a rigorous screening that includes an FBI background check. Highly trained immigration officers posted overseas then try to confirm whether applicants meet the legal standards of a refugee. They conduct face-to-face interviews to verify who they are and what forced them to flee. Testimonies are evaluated for consistency with country conditions. The process takes 18 to 36 months or longer. Once refugees are accepted into the U.S., 10 national refugee resettlement agencies in coordination with local nonprofit partners support them during their first 90 days in the country. Critics of resettlement, including Trump, have argued that refugees threaten U.S. national security, are unvetted and do not assimilate into the U.S. economy and society. However, research show that refugees contribute both economically and socially through taxes and entrepreneurship. They also revitalize towns with declining populations. Between 2005 and 2019, refugees yielded a net positive fiscal impact of US$123.8 billion, at both federal and state levels, and generated an estimated $581 billion for governments at all levels. A 2023 American Immigration Council report found that the spending power of refugees in just one state, California, totaled more than $20.7 billion. There is no link between refugees and crime, nor is there any notable link to terrorism. Although the 9/11 attacks were not committed by refugees, President George W. Bush in 2001 suspended refugee admissions for several months, leaving 23,000 refugees already approved for resettlement in limbo, mainly in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Many had sold their belongings and homes in anticipation of moving to the U.S. In 2017, Trump in his first term in office issued executive order 13769. The directive suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days and barred entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – for 90 days. It also indefinitely banned Syrian refugees. Trump also lowered the annual refugee admissions cap, from 110,000 in 2017 to 45,000 in 2018, and continued dropping it each year. By 2021, his administration had set the lowest refugee cap in U.S. history, at 15,000. The second suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program drastically affected refugees waiting abroad for resettlement and those already in the U.S. Arabic-speaking refugees in particular struggled with discrimination and psychosocial challenges such as stress and other medical issues, leading to poorer social integration. The U.S. economy suffered, too. One researcher estimated that Trump's 2017 suspension of refugee resettlement deprived the country of $9.1 billion in economic activity per year and sapped public coffers at all levels of government of over $2 billion a year. More than 300 Americans who worked in refugee resettlement were laid off in 2017 alone. Trump's Muslim ban created an enormous backlog of immigration cases. In 2021, for instance, the incoming Biden administration inherited petitions for 25,994 unprocessed refugee family reunification cases. Many other vetted refugees were not allowed entry, including U.S.-affiliated Iraqis and Afghans who remained trapped in violent contexts. Similar repercussions are already seen today. As of Jan. 22, 2025, the Trump administration had canceled the flights of 10,000 vetted refugees into the U.S. Most of them were coming from the 10 countries that the U.S. had accepted refugees from in recent years, including Venezuela, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sudan and Iraq. These refugees are now at acute risk of persecution and violence. Recently arrived refugees, who would normally receive assistance for their first 90 days, are likewise losing support for basic essentials such as warm clothing, food and housing assistance. Resettlement agencies nationwide are also feeling the pain of Trump cutting federal funding for refugee resettlement. Several nonprofits have lost millions in government contracts allocated to assist new arrivals. They were forced to fire dozens or in some cases hundreds of staffers. Three refugee resettlement agencies have sued the federal government for withholding congressionally appropriated funding for refugee processing and services. On Feb. 25, 2025, a federal judge in Seattle agreed with the plaintiffs in Pacito v. Trump that Trump likely exceeded his authority and temporarily blocked the refugee program's suspension. The legal battle over America's refugee system has just begun. History suggests everyone involved with the program and the U.S. economy will suffer for years to come. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Tazreena Sajjad, American University School of International Service Read more: We study mass surveillance for social control, and we see Trump laying the groundwork to 'contain' people of color and immigrants How Americans really feel about deporting immigrants – 3 charts explain the conflicting headlines from recent polls Lower refugee limits are weakening resettlement in the US Tazreena Sajjad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: An open letter to those reevaluating the U.S. refugee admissions program
I am writing to share my experience with refugee sponsorship and urge you to consider the impact of programs like WelcomeCorps. Until recently, my understanding of refugees was vague. I felt compassion but thought, 'I'm just one person; what can I do?' I never imagined meeting — let alone sponsoring — a refugee. Then I discovered WelcomeCorps and learned that, together, we have the power to change lives — not only for refugees, but for all of us. In May 2023, I met Ariana (not her real name), a 30-year-old Afghan woman who fled to Pakistan with her family. She had been determined to learn English, and I volunteered to help. Through our lessons, I learned her story. Ariana had protested the Taliban's takeover in Kabul, Afghanistan. When I asked how she found the courage, she said, 'We were willing to die to defend our freedom. Every protest, we didn't know if we'd return.' Ariana's resistance was unwavering. She led protests, including one where she burned a burka to demand freedom. Her father, an educator, was murdered for teaching girls. Her 14-year-old sister was threatened for refusing to marry a Taliban soldier. Her brother's phone was smashed at one protest, and he was warned never to return. As friends were beaten, arrested or killed — eight women in Mazar-i-Shariff alone — Ariana persisted. 'I suffered and died inside a thousand times whenever women were tortured and killed. I want to be a voice for all women who lack freedom,' she told me. In April 2023, Ariana and her family escaped to Pakistan, where she completed graduate work in criminal law, supported by a courageous Afghan faculty who helped her in secret. When I shared Ariana's story, a friend declared, 'We have to bring her here.' My feeling of 'What can I do?' switched to 'We will find a way!' That's when we found WelcomeCorps, a program that empowers U.S. citizens to sponsor refugees, offering not just material support but also a welcoming community. My co-sponsors — friends and family — underwent training, raised funds, searched for housing and organized donations. A friend made a quilt for Ariana's family, and an eager 8-year-old neighbor encouraged me to learn their names. We were ready! On May 12, 2024, we were certified by WelcomeCorps, joining over 2 million sponsors nationwide. We were overjoyed when Ariana's family completed their first interview in Pakistan on Dec. 26, 2024. They were weeks from travel, and we spent Christmas break preparing for their arrival. But now, due to the executive order halting refugee processing, our plans are in limbo. We are devastated and uncertain about what the future holds for Ariana's family and so many others left waiting. Private sponsorship programs like WelcomeCorps have proven to be an invaluable resource for refugees and the communities that welcome them. Refugees who are privately sponsored have a much higher chance of successful integration into their new homes. With trained sponsors providing support, refugees are less isolated and better able to access the resources they need — whether it's housing, education or employment. These programs create real bonds between refugees and the people who are helping them, and they give refugees a chance to thrive, not just survive. As you reconsider refugee admissions, think of the families waiting — supported by people like me, who have trained, prepared and are ready to help. These refugees are resilient individuals with hopes and dreams like anyone else. Supporting them is not just a privilege; it's an expression of our faith as we strive to 'love our neighbors as ourselves.' I envision a future where my grandchildren meet Ariana, hear her story and realize their own blessings. I hope they, too, will be moved to act courageously. As you evaluate these programs, please consider the impact that welcoming families like Ariana's can have — not only on them but on all of us. A community loves them and is ready and waiting to welcome them.
