Halting refugee services endangers new Americans

The Trump administration has made a cruel and counterproductive decision about refugees.

Beyond just suspending future refugee admissions through the resettlement program, the administration issued a memo on Jan. 24 to resettlement agencies to terminate services for their refugee clients who are already in communities across the U.S.

Not only does this decision deprive recently arrived refugees of the critical support that had been promised to them when they boarded a plane bound for resettlement destinations throughout America, but it also halts services that are crucial for ensuring refugees’ early employment, housing security, access to medical care and school enrollment.

Should this decision hold, the more than 27,000 refugees who have been resettled in the U.S. since Oct. 1 could soon face unemployment and homelessness without the support of the professionals who know how to guide them.

These are not illegal border-crossers. These refugees have been selected and approved to come to America already, deemed particularly vulnerable and in need of resettlement by both the United Nations Refugee Agency and the U.S. government. They include single parents, children with disabilities and people who have lived for years amid difficult conditions in refugee camps and urban areas. They have nowhere else to go.

Once their cases are approved, after a lengthy and rigorous security check process, refugees are assigned to a local resettlement agency staffed with professionals who offer 90 days of critical social service support. These service providers secure housing, enroll adults in English classes and children in school, and help adults gain employment all within this 90-day period. Their federally contracted work is driven by the dual objectives of early employment and economic independence.

The decision to end remaining support for eligible refugees is not just cruel but shortsighted. The Trump administration is terminating the very services designed to get refugees economically self-sufficient within a matter of months. Refugees already in communities across the U.S. will be denied the expertise of the resettlement agency staff, who know how to get them settled and employed quickly, all on a shoestring budget.

Blocking access to this essential resource benefits no one. The more than 27,000 refugees who are still within this 90-day window of services are being put in an unfathomable and potentially life-threatening situation.

The resettlement program was not designed for refugees to figure things out for themselves. For many who arrive, the decision of where they go has already been made for them. They stepped off the airplane with no preexisting network in their community or localized knowledge about their surroundings. The resettlement agency caseworker who greeted them at the airport may be the only person they know in this country.

While ending future admissions goes against America’s longstanding humanitarian commitment to refugees, halting services for those already here abruptly cuts off a lifeline for refugees who are simply trying to gain their footing. This bait and switch will carry devastating consequences, both for refugees and the communities tasked with welcoming them.

Dr. Molly Fee is a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Sociology at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. This fall, she will be an assistant professor in the department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at the University of South Florida.