Connecticut refugee resettlement agencies are rushing to adapt to a Friday order from the Trump administration to freeze funding for programs meant to help new arrivals.
Leaders from the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI) in Bridgeport, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven and Jewish Family Services of Greenwich told Connecticut Public on Monday that the stop-work order from the U.S. State Department meant an abrupt end to funding for services to aid refugees when they first arrive in the U.S.
“It's essentially saying, ‘We've welcomed people into this country, and now we are not going to provide the support that we as a nation and an international system have promised to them,’” said Susan Schnitzer, CIRI president and CEO.
The stop-work order applies to funding for the federal Reception and Placement program, which is meant to aid refugees during their first 90 days in the country. Schnitzer said those first 90 days are a critical period for new arrivals as they learn about their new cities and towns, get settled in new homes, and learn about available assistance.
“We are going to use other, non-federal sources to ensure that we provide those first 90 days of service to the refugees that we have resettled here in Connecticut,” said Schnitzer.
Schnitzer said CIRI is assisting about 100 refugees still within their first 90 days, from countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Sudan and Guatemala. She said the cost to keep providing services absent the federal funding could end up at around a million dollars, which she said will have to be covered through state grants and private donations.
Rachel Kornfeld, CEO of Jewish Family Services of Greenwich, said the order was “shocking,” especially coming on a Friday evening.
“We have staff who celebrate Shabbat,” Kornfeld said. “It was just an added blow.”
Kornfeld said her organization was calling for community support to be able to continue to aid 34 individuals within their first 90 days in the country.
“I wouldn't want any human who has just traveled clear across the world to arrive to safety and was promised support services as they build their new life, for all of that to be ripped from them,” Kornfeld said. “They're suddenly in a strange land where they don't speak the language, have no money, benefits or ability to survive, and that's just heartbreaking.”
Friday’s order, Kornfeld said, builds on last week’s series of executive orders suspending refugee programs to create an environment of fear for JFS clients. She says the executive actions have led to cancellations from refugees who had already been through a years-long process and were set to arrive this month.
“It's pure cruelty to keep people apart when we have the ability to reunite families and for them to create positive and contributing lives here in the U.S.,” Kornfeld said.
Cancellations and consequences
Maggie Mitchell Salem, IRIS executive director, said all of the administration’s actions – the executive orders, the stop-work orders – need to be taken together to understand just how big an impact they’re having on clients and staff.
“It’s overwhelming,” Salem said. “Every day, something else changes, and it doesn't always offer more clarity to us. And our clients, the people we serve, are just deeply fearful. No one feels secure. They come to us for information, and we tell them what we know, but as of now, that's not a lot.”
Salem said the stop-work orders Friday necessitated the laying off of staff members. Even before Friday, IRIS was hearing of cancellations from expected arrivals.
“In one case, it was for a Congolese woman who was joining her sister in Hartford, and that was the first cancellation that I had seen,” Salem said. “And you start thinking about the impact of this on people, and it's really – it is overwhelming.”
“There are real consequences for these actions, and I don't know what to say” to clients, Salem said. “Because I'm an American, and I think we keep our promises, and I think we do good in the world, and to see all of that rolling back … it's horrible. It's gutting.”
In a Jan. 20 order suspending refugee admissions, the White House said, “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.”
Salem said a blanket pause on refugee admissions and resettlement funding isn’t the answer.
“This is not the way to fix it,” she said. “You can't just hit stop without it impacting everyone, not just the people who aren't able to get here or the people already here. It's impacting employers, communities. Think about your tax base. Think about social services programs that need people to continue paying into them.”
“This is about all of us,” Salem said. “There's no ‘us’ and ‘them’ here.”
