Local resettlement agencies facing dire effects after Trump’s federal funding freeze

A barrage of executive orders from President Trump has affected the work of many, including faith based resettlement agencies across the country. The main challenge these agencies are facing — no reimbursement from the federal government.

NEPM’s Kari Njiiri spoke with reporter Nirvani Williams, who has been looking into the challenges national and local resettlement agencies in New England are facing due to these executive orders.

Kari Njiiri, host: So what have the resettlement agencies you've spoken to been experiencing since Trump's freeze on federal funding for some nonprofits went into effect?

Nirvani Williams, reporter: The heads of two main resettlement agencies in Massachusetts Jewish Family Service in Springfield and a Century of Care Alliance in Worcester, which was formerly Lutheran Family Services, say the pause on federal funding has had a devastating impact on immigrants, either for those coming into the country through refugee status or through other immigration programs.

These immigrants were told not so long ago by the federal government that they would be welcomed into the country and helped Rabbi James Green from Jewish family service in western Massachusetts, told me their agency secured an apartment for a family from Afghanistan who escaped the Taliban to resettle here. They came into the U.S. through the Special Immigrant Visa program.

Rabbi James Greene, Jewish Family Service: “We had secured an apartment for them, and I wrote the check. About half an hour after the work stop order was issued. And so I wasn't able to use the money that was allocated by the federal government to place them into permanent housing. And the family that I placed into permanent housing the day before on the 23rd, I had already spent the money, but I wasn't reimbursed. We haven't been reimbursed for it.”

Greene said they don't have a clear timeline on when they'll be reimbursed by the federal government. Angela Bovill from Ascentria Care Alliance says their last family arrived on January 16th. Normally, the federal government guarantees support for 90 days to get the new arrivals settled and on their feet. That no longer is a guarantee. Bovill outlines some of the resources that are lost now.

Angela Bovill, Ascentria Care Alliance: “That means teaching them English, getting them housing, making sure that they get medical care and all the things that they would need in order to square away their life circumstances so that they can support their own families. That support has stopped. And so for someone who arrived on January 16th, there is no money for housing for any of the other services that they were supposed to receive when they arrived for the first three months.”

Nirvani, have you heard from resettlement agencies facing similar challenges on the national level?

Yes, I have. I spoke with Courtney Madsen, the Northeast Regional director from Church World Services, an organization that supports resettlement agencies across the country. Madsen says members of the public are donating to local agencies as well as CWS, but fears these private donations won't be enough to supplement this loss of federal funding.

Courtney Madsen, Church World Services: “There is no amount of private fundraising that we are going to be able to do to alleviate the suffering that this is causing.”

CWS has furloughed half of their U.S. based staff with local resettlement agencies across the country also facing layoffs.

How federal agencies responded to this?

Sort of. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is inside the Department of Health and Human Services, told NPR it has not requested a pause on its payments to national resettlement agencies. HHS cited system outages as a reason some payments from the agency might generally be paused, according to filings from a lawsuit against the funding freeze. Now, the State Department told NPR that they have suspended new arrivals, case processing and foreign assistance, which are pending reviews.

I can't imagine these resettlement agencies are finding it difficult to wrap their minds around the many changes that have been made to their work, all within the span of three weeks. Now, how do they move forward? I mean, even tentatively.

Well, they've been thrown into a chaotic situation with limited options on how to help these vulnerable communities. Angela Bovill says now that the pipeline for new arrivals has come to a screeching halt, they're pivoting and trying to support the refugees who are already here.

Angela Bovill, Ascentria Care Alliance: “We are going to be leaning heavily on communities, on volunteers, on donations and other outside supports than we have had to in quite some time. We're partnering with our churches of all kinds.”

I'm sure these faith organizations and their spiritual practices call them to continue this work. Have they spoken to you about using specific ideas or practices in their faith to ground them during this time?

Yes. Rabbi James Greene from Jewish Family Service talks about how one of the most often repeated commandments in Scripture is to welcome the stranger. He compares this scene from Exodus to the weight of fear and peril refugees face just coming into the country.

Rabbi James Greene, Jewish Family Service: “There's this beautiful, powerful scene in Exodus 15 where the Israelites are walking across the floor, bed of the sea, and the Torah says there's a wall of water on their right and on their left. The immense challenge of what it means to be a refugee is to walk across the floor of the sea with a wall of water on either side, looking over you, and our obligation is to welcome people. That's that's central to what it means, I think, to be a person of faith in this world.”

And the Lutheran pastor on Ascentria’s board, Pastor Ross Goodman, echoes Rabbi Greene's sentiments.

Pastor Ross Goodman, Ascentria Care Alliance: “I think for both of us, Jewish and Christian in origin, this is the deepest practice. At the core of our being is this idea of welcoming the stranger. And for Lutherans, you know, another translation of that is ‘loving the neighbor,’ ‘who is your neighbor...’”

Angela Bovill, Ascentria Care Alliance: “...which makes this current dynamic that we see in the United States so vexing, honestly, because it's between, particularly those of faith, in what we're called to do and who we're called to be. And this idea that some people are acceptable and some people are not, and some people are worthy and some people are not. And that, fundamentally, that needs to be rejected.”