[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church has helped resettle more than 100,000 refugees fleeing war and persecution since the United States created its federal resettlement program 45 years ago. That ministry, one of the church’s most revered and robust, was effectively halted this week by a stroke of the president’s pen.
On Jan. 20, hours after President Donald Trump took office for a second term, he signed an executive order that suspended all refugee resettlement in the United States and gave no clear indication when, if ever, it might resume.
Afghan refugee girls watch a soccer match near where they are staying at the Fort McCoy U.S. Army base in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, in September 2021. Photo: Reuters
“The historic and ongoing work of Episcopal Migration Ministries is a living expression of Christ’s command to care for those in need and offer hope to the weary,” Sarah Shipman, Episcopal Migration Ministries’ director, said in a Jan. 23 statement to Episcopal News Service. “The executive order halting refugee resettlement is devastating for many vulnerable people who were close to starting new lives in the United States. Our hearts hurt for them, and our prayers go out for them.”
The order was one of a series of first-day measures by the Trump administration targeting both legal and illegal immigration. The suspension of refugee resettlement was scheduled to take effect Jan. 27, but already some refugees and refugee families who had been scheduled to arrive in the United States this week have had their travel plans canceled, according to news reports.
Episcopal Migration Ministries, EMM, is one of 10 agencies with federal contracts to facilitate refugee resettlement on behalf of the State Department. The agencies had spent the past four years rebuilding their capacity, after Trump slashed refugee resettlement in his first term. His new order again casts doubt on the viability of a federal program that has long had bipartisan support.
Refugee resettlement has been central to EMM’s work, which also includes support for asylum-seekers and other migrants through local affiliates and congregations. Since the inauguration, it has been tracking Trump’s immigration-related executive orders on its website. Despite the renewed uncertainty under Trump, Shipman said the agency remains focused on its mission.
“We are confident we will continue our vital ministry to address the needs of immigrants already in our communities–now and in the years to come,” she said.
Refugee resettlement agencies often praise the refugees they assist for quickly establishing themselves in their new communities and contributing to those communities both economically and culturally. Many of the newest refugees to arrive in the United States are fleeing Afghanistan, often because of their support for the United States’ former war effort in their home country.
Because of Trump’s order, more than 10,000 refugees are now stranded in locations around the world awaiting final clearance to resettle in the United States, and more than 1,600 Afghans already had been cleared for travel, only to learn this week that those plans had been canceled by the Trump administration, according to the Associated Press.
“This abrupt halt to refugee admissions is devastating for families who have already endured unimaginable persecution and waited years for the chance to rebuild their lives in safety,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the head of the resettlement agency Global Refuge, told The New York Times.
“Refugees go through one of the most rigorous vetting processes in the world,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to see their dreams of safety derailed just days before, or in some cases, just hours before they were set to begin their new lives here.”
Some refugees have waited years or even decades for the opportunity to resettle in the United States, Eskinder Negash, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told the Times.
“Even if the refugee program is reopened in the future, the indefinite suspension of refugee travel and processing will have lasting trauma and impact on refugees and families,” he said.
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, established by Congress in 1980, created a lengthy and rigorous process for screening, vetting, welcoming and supporting the resettlement of refugees unable to return to their home countries. The law also requires the U.S. president each year to set a ceiling, or maximum number of refugees to be admitted.
During Trump’s first term, his administration reduced the ceiling to a record low of 15,000 refugees a year. President Joe Biden reversed that policy when he took office in 2021, raising the ceiling to 125,000 refugees, though it took several years for EMM and the other resettlement agencies to rebuild their networks and capacity.
EMM now has 15 affiliates around the country, up from 11 in 2020, and they helped welcome more than 6,500 refugees in the past fiscal year. In all last year, EMM and the other contracted agencies resettled about 100,000 refugees, a significant turnaround, though still short of the maximum allowed entry under Biden.
The Episcopal Church’s presiding officers also pledged the church’s continuing support for “Christ’s call to welcome the stranger” in a joint letter issued Jan. 21, the day after Trump’s inauguration.
“Because our true citizenship is not here on earth but in heaven, we are called to transcend the earthly distinctions made among us by the leaders of this world,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris said. “This sacred call shapes both our churchwide commitment to stand with migrants and the ministries of congregations across our church who serve vulnerable immigrants and refugees in their communities.”
Trump’s new executive order suspends the refugee resettlement program entirely, “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
The order is titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program.” It begins by citing a surge of migrants into and across the United States under President Joe Biden that was unrelated to refugee admissions. It mentions, for example, Springfield, Ohio, which courted a growing population of Haitian migrants, many of whom are in the United States legally under a different federal program known as Temporary Protected Status.
“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,” Trump’s executive order says. It then determines that continued refugee resettlement “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
By prioritizing U.S. interests and framing the program as one that “preserves taxpayer resources for its citizens,” Trump’s executive order “could redefine the entire U.S. refugee program,” the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group, said in its summary of the changes.
“The current refugee program was based on priority going to refugees at the most significant risk, often meaning those with threatening health conditions or persecution risks,” the National Immigration Forum said.
Although Trump’s order does not say when refugee resettlement might resume, it instructs the secretaries of Homeland Security and State to report back to the president every 90 days on “whether resumption of entry of refugees into the United States under the USRAP would be in the interests of the United States.” It does not elaborate on what criteria must be met to end the suspension.
“The practical implication,” National Immigration Forum said, “is that refugee arrivals will be indefinitely suspended.”
The order says the administration also will consider ways to give state and local authorities a greater say in any future refugee placements, if they resume. Trump’s attempt during his first term to allow local jurisdictions to refuse refugees was blocked by a federal judge.
Global resettlement needs have only increased in recent years. The refugees who are resettled in the United States typically are fleeing war, persecution and other hardships in their home countries. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, estimates there are more than 32 million such refugees worldwide, and tens of millions more have been displaced within their home countries.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.