America’s System for Resettling Refugees Is Collapsing
National
resettlement agencies are closing offices and laying off staff in
response to the decline in arrivals, leaving the future of the program
in the balance.
Huda
Muhammed, a career-development program coordinator at the International
Rescue Committee in Baltimore, Maryland. The IRC is one of nine
organizations tasked with resettling refugees.Emily Jan / The AtlanticBALTIMORE,
Md.— A young girl hangs from a chair, swinging her legs and watching a
fidget spinner spiral around her small finger. A couple huddles
together, sifting through paperwork. A woman quietly speaks into her
cellphone. A new life in America begins with quotidian routine here in
this waiting room.
But
the placid, ordinary moment at the International Rescue Committee’s
office in Baltimore is vanishing in some areas of the country: Deep cuts
by the Trump administration in the number of refugees admitted to the
U.S. annually has forced the IRC and eight other nonprofits that help
those fleeing war, famine, and persecution to cut staff and close
offices.
“There
has been, over the last two years, a systematic dismantling of the
refugee-resettlement infrastructure by the administration, either
directly or indirectly,” said Emily Gray, the senior vice president of
U.S. ministries at World Relief, one of the nine agencies.
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