Since Trump took workplace, help for refugees has largely been revoked or suspended, with many current arrivals from Afghanistan unable to carry their households.
Demonstrators collect to protest towards a journey ban introduced by US President Donald Trump.
(Patrick T. Fallon / Getty)
Since President Donald Trump took workplace, federal help for refugees, as soon as a device for these at risk, has largely been revoked or suspended.
In Chicago, the resettlement company RefugeeOne has witnessed the steep decline of recent arrivals. Between October 2023 and September 2024, the group helped 705 refugees. However within the federal fiscal yr of 2025, that quantity plummeted to 50, representing a “full shutdown of our refugee pipeline” in line with Emily Parker of RefugeeOne.
This pipeline refers back to the usually complicated administrative strategy of resettling refugees out of disaster and into a brand new nation. Most up-to-date arrivals—and the one arrivals allowed—are Afghan Particular Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders: individuals in Afghanistan who labored alongside US forces contracted particularly for 12 months or extra. Many of those SIV holders needed to go away their households behind, unable to carry them due to the administration’s new insurance policies.
“We are able to’t change authorities applications. We are able to’t change household reunification. We are able to’t bodily get individuals out of nations,” mentioned Parker. “Proper now, all we will do is help the individuals which are already right here.”
Almost 200,000 Afghans arrived in america below the Biden administration, many by way of a relocation effort to search out individuals left behind who had labored with the US authorities and acquired SIV. One refugee who made the journey by way of SIV, Abdul, labored in Herat for a number of years with Computerized Administration Companies (AMS), an organization contracted by the Afghan Ministry of Protection that collaborates with overseas navy forces. His position was to coach the Afghan Nationwide Police in ordering car components, sourcing them by way of Kabul, and distributing them throughout 4 navy areas within the nation.
In 2021, because the US ready to withdraw and the Taliban regained management, overseas workers started leaving, he mentioned, and AMS shut down. “When the Taliban was coming at the moment, I used to be not considering, ‘I’m protected,’ or ‘my household is protected.’ In order that’s why I got here right here,” he mentioned.
Present Challenge
Afghan workers acquired paperwork confirming their employment, which they used to use for visas. Abdul mentioned he needed to obtain a suggestion letter, present a biography, ID, and Human Useful resource letters with a purpose to get a Chief of Mission (COM) approval that grants the SIV from the US State Division. However since america not had an embassy in Afghanistan, he needed to relocate to Rwanda to finish the visa course of. He traveled to Iran then Dubai, spending $4,000 on the journey.
In Rwanda, the US embassy requested about his wage, work location, and firm wants, after which issued a visa after two to 3 weeks. After submitting medical paperwork and present process interviews, Abdul might lastly resettle in Chicago.
“Chicago is a really good place,” he mentioned. “Good individuals, good downtown. I prefer it.” He’s now residing in an residence with many different Afghan refugees and different Central Asian or Center Japanese migrants. In the lounge, a Turkish neighbor the refugee known as “a sister” helped handle him, offering fruit platters through the dialog. “It’s like a neighborhood,” he mentioned.
Navigating Trump’s new insurance policies has not been simple. On his first day again in workplace, Trump signed an executive order canceling flights for Afghan refugees—together with these reuniting households. In June, he suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program, leaving numerous candidates in a bureaucratic void. Different grants reminiscent of Short-term Protected Standing and Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts have now ceased. In the identical month, Trump handed his “Large Stunning Invoice,” growing charges for asylum seekers and putting a journey ban on Afghans with immigrant or non-immigrant visas.
Abdul’s dad and mom, two sisters, and brother stay in Afghanistan, creating an enormous emotional burden for him. His father, who labored on the similar firm for over a decade, by no means acquired a suggestion letter to get an SIV visa, as AMS gave them solely to a small % of workers. He later received one from a former supervisor in India and his case is now ready for COM approval—usually a prolonged course of.
Abdul’s story represents hundreds, he mentioned. “If my household just isn’t coming right here, I’m making an attempt to return and go to my household”—but it surely’s not protected to return, because the Taliban continues to arrest individuals. After the takeover, Abdul and his household modified their handle. He mentioned Taliban have spies in all places and “they may very well be your neighbors” who inform them that you simply labored for the US navy.
He now works in meals supply, usually sending a number of hundred {dollars} again to his household in Afghanistan for fundamental requirements, and expressed frustration at not discovering a job in America just like the one he had in Herat. “We don’t wish to be a boss or chief,” he mentioned. “We simply desire a system.”
His household connects over WhatsApp one or two instances per week, although the Web connection is poor. His youthful sisters, between ages of 13 and 21, can’t attend faculty for greater than “six years,” he mentioned, referring to the ban that prohibits Afghan ladies from persevering with research previous the sixth grade. He mentioned that his mom misses him, and that his sister repeatedly asks when he’s coming again. “It’s exhausting for me…more often than not I’m mendacity to them”
He informed them he’d be gone for less than two to 3 months. It has now been over a yr.
Beforehand, the State Division’s CARE program helped relocate Afghan allies to nations like Qatar, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, however now it’s nearly not possible to flee Afghanistan, in line with Parker. “I’m in touch with one household whose husband is right here. He was a pilot within the Afghan Air Drive working alongside the American power,” she mentioned. “His spouse and youngsters by no means received initially evacuated. They need to have, and so they simply reside in hiding of their residence. They haven’t been outdoors in 4 years…. We’ve just about confirmed now that they’re gonna have to attend one other 4 years.” The household, she mentioned, has no means to get outdoors of Afghanistan. “It’s so dangerous even to undergo Pakistan. It is vitally, very, very harmful and scary.”
“Whereas refugee admissions have been drastically lowered through the first Trump administration, that is the primary time in our historical past that we’ve seen first a ban on all refugees getting into our nation and now a trickle of admissions,” mentioned Sarah Schulze of Refugee One, which has helped welcome greater than 22,000 refugees because the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980. The group will proceed to assist any arrivals they obtain throughout the first 90 days, providing meals, hire cash, immigration counseling, employment assist, psychological well being companies, and extra. However federal funding is on a per capita foundation, so fewer refugees means a tighter price range.
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“Our growth division does an excellent job of making certain that we’ve a extremely good form of padding of personal funding that has been very nice to get from of us which are actually seeking to assist and complement in gentle of the lack of grants,” she mentioned, including that the state of Illinois and metropolis of Chicago is a big supporter of refugee businesses as nicely.
In 2024, Governor J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Division of Human Companies introduced $17 million in extra funding for municipalities to help asylum seekers. And Chicago’s metropolis price range is about to make use of $150 million for aiding new arrivals.
If funding cuts deepen, nevertheless, the company will probably be compelled to offer skeleton companies for these at present within the refugee pipeline, which Parker anticipates will occur over the course of the subsequent two years. This could imply the company can present meals, water, shelter, and clothes, however applications that assist shoppers apply for faculty, be taught a commerce, or add an additional stage of adjustment could be the primary to go.
“We’re doing our greatest proper now with the oldsters which are already right here,” she mentioned. “However the of us affected by household reunification, that could be a wound that we aren’t in a position to heal.”
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