Trump administration halts all refugee effort, abandoning tens of thousands of cases without notice

An January 20 Executive Order titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program”  suspended the refugee program indefinitely, effective January 27. (Go here for an earlier posting on this.) On January 24, the State Department instructed the vast network of resettlement partners, many of them religious organizations, to immediately cease all work.  The effect of both orders are reported to be at least: 10,000 refugees who had already been cleared for travel to the U.S. had their plans canceled; 10,000 Afghans who were promised resettlement were left stranded in Pakistan; thousands of refugees already in the U.S. are abandoned by the federal government.

The Cato Institute issued this report on January 27. Also go here for a news report.)

An example of a resettlement partner is World Relief. The following are excerpts from its report to the public:

(Baltimore, MD) January 25, 2025 – Late on Friday [January 24], World Relief received a notice from our longtime governmental partner, the U.S. Department of State, instructing us to “stop all work” under the grant agreement that provides initial resettlement support to newly arrived refugees for the first several months of their lives in the United States.

Early on Saturday [January 25], we received a similar notice impacting lifesaving programs that World Relief carries out internationally in partnership with local church partners through an agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Both “stop orders” cite the legal authority of President Trump’s recent Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid.

World Relief is seeking more clarity from our governmental partners on precisely what these instructions mean — and we hope that there may be some misunderstanding and possibility of reconsideration — but we are deeply grieved by the profound harm that these abrupt mandates seem likely to have on vulnerable people who have already endured profound crises.

 

 

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