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Kansas City refugee resettlement agencies in limbo after Trump halts funding and admissions

Kansas City area members of the Hazara, an ethnic minority in Afghanistan who have long been targets of violence, demonstrated at the World War I Museum and Memorial in October 2022 to call attention to the killing of young Hazara women and girls in Kabul.
Ali Hussaini
Kansas City area members of the Hazara, an ethnic minority in Afghanistan who have long been targets of violence, demonstrated at the World War I Museum and Memorial in October 2022 to call attention to the killing of young Hazara women and girls in Kabul.

President Trump ordered the suspension of federally-funded refugee services and admissions. In Kansas City, groups are struggling to serve newly-arrived clients — who have already passed strict vetting to get into the U.S. — with basic financial assistance, food and medicine.

Jewish Vocational Services, one of four refugee resettlement organizations in the Kansas City metro, expected some refugee restrictions when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.

But executive director Hilary Singer was still caught off guard by the speed and intensity with which the Trump Administration shut down refugee programs.

"What we're seeing this time is a little bit unprecedented in terms of how swift and how comprehensive the stoppage is," Singer says.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order barring all refugee arrivals for at least 90 days.

This order has had a direct impact on some Kansas City refugee families, some of whom had waited years to be reunited with their loved ones. Organizations like JVS were forced to deliver the news to their clients.

"(One woman) was able to come without her husband, and here we are, eight years or so later, and her husband was finally scheduled to travel, actually this week," Singer says. "We started working together to plan for his arrival and how things would go. And then our staff had to make that follow up call that the flight had been canceled."

Last week, Trump issued a "stop work" order for all refugee resettlement agencies within the United States using federal funds. Agencies like Singer's had worked in partnership with the U.S. State Department to provide services to refugees for their first three months after arrival.

Singer says Trump's order halts "basic assistance, rent, utilities, food, medicine to folks." As a result, some refugee support agencies around Missouri have had to pause operations and furlough staff.

Singer says that fears of unchecked migration into the United States are unfounded when it comes to refugees. In addition to intense background checks and long wait times to enter the country, fewer than 1% of the world's refugees end up resettled in the United States.

Many refugees who do settle here flee their homelands because of their support for U.S. policy, like those who aided the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

"Refugees are some of the most checked, vetted, security screened folks that you might want to to come across," Singer says. "Folks who are granted entry through the Refugee Admissions Program are literally invited by our government."

Despite the order, JVS and other resettlement organizations have continued to do what they can to provide refugee services in the Kansas City area. Singer says JVS will have to rely on private donations and volunteer work to fulfill their commitment to roughly 250 existing clients.

"So far, I feel really proud of our team, that we are out there and delivering service and checking in on people," Singer says. "We are really looking now to find additional support for people's basic needs so that they can have that brief on ramp into into life in in Kansas City."

  • Hilary Singer, Jewish Vocational Services Executive Director
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When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.
As the 2024-2025 Up to Date intern, I am passionate about finding diverse stories that allow public radio to serve as a platform for people in our area to share what matters to them. I grew up in the Kansas City metro, graduated from the University of Arkansas, and have previously worked as a producer for KUAF, Northwest Arkansas' NPR affiliate station. Email me at jmarvine@kcur.org.
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