Advocate groups ordered to stop aiding refugees who have already arrived in US
By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration on Friday abruptly halted services for refugees in the United States, including Afghans, according to a memo obtained by CNN, stunning agencies that provide critical support to recent arrivals.
It’s a sweeping move that prompted a scramble as refugee advocates tried to interpret the order. The memo stands to affect tens of thousands of refugees – including Afghans who aided the US during the war – by seemingly barring them from assistance, ranging from caseworker support to housing, that is afforded to arrivals in their first three months in the United States.
“We’ll have refugees going homeless,” a refugee advocate told CNN. “It’s completely unprecedented. Nothing like this has ever happened.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week suspending refugee admissions as part of a broader effort by the administration to limit entry to the US on the basis of public safety and national security. As a result, approximately 10,000 refugees who had travel booked following a yearslong and often cumbersome process had those flights canceled.
But Friday’s memo goes a step further, according to multiple sources.
Resettlement agencies receive federal funding from the State Department. Those funds are authorized and appropriated by Congress for the purpose of aiding refugee arrivals. The State Department notified partners that all work under those awards must end, according to the memo obtained by CNN.
“Effective immediately upon receipt of this Notice of Suspension the Recipient must stop all work under the award(s) and not incur any new costs after the effective date cited above. The Recipient must cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible,” the memo states.
CNN has reached out to the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration for comment.
While Trump’s executive order, and the flight cancellations that followed, marked a huge blow to the refugee admissions program, Friday’s memo appears to bar agencies from providing funds and services to the refugees already in the United States.
Resettlement agencies help place refugees once they’ve been admitted to the US, introducing them to services, helping them get jobs and familiarizing them with a new community. In some cases, the help offices provide can be as simple as showing individuals the local bus route or teaching them how to use the financial system, or as significant as providing housing assistance.
Some of the most critical support is provided in the first three months, when refugees are eligible for multiple services that are federally funded.
Those exempt from the flight cancellations, like Afghans who worked for the US government and come under a special visa, may be impacted by the memo because it would similarly keep them from receiving services provided by resettlement agencies.
“We understand the need to reevaluate and realign priorities, but Afghan programs must be exempted to prevent a humanitarian crisis. This is a fixable issue, and we stand ready to work with the administration to get it right,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac and a Navy veteran.
Without those funds, it’s unclear what avenues of support they have.
“The goal is self-sufficiency,” an immigration attorney told CNN. “You’re diminishing peoples’ access to services that help them become self-sufficient.”
More than 30,000 refugees have arrived in the United States since October 1, the start of the fiscal year, and would be within the three-month window receiving benefits and services.
“You got here a week ago, under the wire, you know your case manager for three days. And now you’re not allowed to call them to get support from them,” another source said. “All of that is on hold. If you’re a recent arrival, you’re what, just on your own now?”
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