From his first days in office, Donald Trump took steps to prevent undocumented immigrants and refugees from entering the country. But he’s also targeted entirely different groups of people who have Temporary Protected Status. In late January, he froze all federal funding to assist refugees resettling in the U.S. He also prohibited all refugees from entering the country, even those who had already been thoroughly vetted and approved — some of whom had already purchased airline tickets.
On March 25, the Ninth Circuit court partially granted and partially denied the government’s motion to overrule another federal court’s initial preliminary injunction issued in a case, ruling that the administration’s indefinite refugee ban and funding freeze were illegal. The latest circuit court ruled that Trump can enforce a ban on some refugee admissions, but also stipulated that the administration must honor resettlement of all refugees whose status was conditionally approved before Trump took office.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Maggie Mitchell Salem, executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services of CT, or IRIS. The Trump regime has thus far withheld $3 million already authorized for IRIS to provide services, resulting in the layoff of 20 percent of their staff and the closure of their main office building. Here she discusses the pros and cons of the latest court ruling on refugee admission status — and the Trump administration’s response.
MAGGIE MITCHELL SALEM: We are incredibly hopeful because of the ongoing rulings against the administration’s actions in suspending the U.S. refugee admissions program, which has actually been upheld — the suspension — except for this carveout for those that are already vetted and were ready to travel.
While that raises our hope the admissions program might at least be restarted to resettle those individuals who have been waiting for years to get into the United States and have gone through the most extreme vetting there is. That said, there are two things that give me pause.
One is that in Pacito v. Trump, which IRIS’ national resettlement agency, Church World Service, is a plaintiff. In that case, the administration in one of the filings indicated that they plan to create a different way of resettling refugees when they do decide to resume. And that there would be one national agency that would be administering the resettlement program. So that’s one thing that gives me pause.
The second is that the Trump administration, in one of the most recent court cases, has been instructed to allow in the 100,000 already vetted refugees. The top five countries that the U.S. accepts refugees from are Rohingya from Burma or Myanmar; Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Afghanistan. Four out of those five countries are on the travel ban red list, meaning that they may not be able to — in fact would be very unlikely to be able to reach the U.S. once that travel ban goes into effect. And so that’s pretty devastating.
So it’s one of the many reasons that I do not think that even with this judgment, which is significant, that it is going to have any real impact. Another problem is that the entire resettlement system from overseas processing to domestic reception has atrophied in the past three months because of the stop work orders and because the administration has not until recently even resumed funding that they were ordered to resume over a month ago. So that’s the state of play in terms of the court case that looks hopeful for at least a temporary resumption of the current U.S. refugee admissions program. But I just think the proof is in the administration’s inaction.
MELINDA TUHUS: Maggie Mitchell Salem, I think the situation of the Afghans, many of whom work directly in support of the U.S. occupation of their country is especially sad if they’re going to be excluded. Do you think there’s a chance that some of them will get in?
MAGGIE MITCHELL SALEM: There are groups that are working really, really hard. #AfghanEvac, No One Left Behind, among others and veterans groups are trying to press the administration to create a carveout for Afghan allies, for those Afghans who helped support U.S. forces during the more than two decades that we were in Afghanistan.
It is unclear at this time whether that carveout is part of the recommendations that the State Department is putting forward to the White House. And then even if it were, whether the White House would agree and accept that carveout. And then there are other Afghans who come here as humanitarian parolees who are also in jeopardy. And the Afghans that come here as humanitarian parolees, some of them worked for the Afghan national government, which was an ally of the United States. And the entire humanitarian parole program is at risk right now starting with the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who are losing their status on April 24th.
MELINDA TUHUS: Your funding was cut by $3 million and you’ve had to significantly downsize your operations. So if people do make it to Connecticut, are you going to be able to help them?
MAGGIE MITCHELL SALEM: We are helping those Afghans who are able to come here. Some funding that supports them is still online and we’re able to use that. And then there has just been incredible support from the community sponsor groups, groups across the state of Connecticut that have helped sponsor refugees and Afghan allies in the past. They are stepping up now and helping us support these families. And we were so glad that the travel ban has not been implemented yet. We were expecting it two weeks ago and we hold our breath as do hundreds of thousands of people around the world for that to come into place. So each arrival is pure joy.
For more information, visit Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services of CT (IRIS) at www.irisct.org.
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