Daily State of Play: Trump’s Indefinite Refugee Ban and Funding Halt


September 16, 2026

The Trump administration’s indefinite refugee ban, stop work orders and prolonged delays in reimbursement for resettlement agencies have had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of refugee families and communities across the country and around the world. Welcome to the latest edition of State of Play from Church World Service. This resource will provide regular updates from the CWS Policy Team on the current state of play; updated asks for national, state and local leaders; and the latest headlines and community resources.

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The latest: Report documents pattern of abuses at infamous detention center in Florida Everglades; court affirms that IRS can’t share taxpayer information with ICE; and advocates challenge rule restricting immigrants’ access to Commercial Driver’s Licenses.

Report details rampant abuses at the now-shuttered “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center. People detained in the state-run detention center in Florida were sometimes caged in “small metal enclosures,” says a new report from the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The report notes the dramatic restriction on individuals’ movement was “unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment.” Investigators also found that the facility did not meet federal standards for basic necessities including food, hygiene, and medical care.

After protracted legal battles and consistent allegations of extreme mistreatment, the Everglades facility finally ceased operations in June. However, a similar state-run facility is still open in Florida and over 400 immigration detention centers remain operational across the country today. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained over 610,000 people since the start of the second Trump administration. People in immigration detention continue to face harrowing conditions, including physical abuse and inadequate food and medical care. ICE is also detaining a record number of pregnant immigrants and has failed to collect data on miscarriages since October 2025.

The report documenting abuses in the Everglades facility comes as many DHS entities designed to provide oversight over immigration detention conditions have all but collapsed. The administration has gutted and defunded the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), and Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman. Congress can and must restore these crucial oversight entities to hold the administration accountable for ongoing abuses.

Court considers whether to approve a rule blocking some immigrants from holding Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs). Yesterday, a federal circuit court panel heard arguments in a case challenging the Department of Transportation’s issuance of a rule that would block asylum seekers, asylees, refugees and DACA recipients from obtaining CDLs. 

The rule doesn’t marshal any evidence to connect drivers’ immigration status to their safety outcomes, though the administration has continued to claim that safety is its rationale for the restriction. The rule itself even explicitly acknowledges that there is no quantitative evidence demonstrating a relationship between a driver’s country of origin and their safety record. 

In recent months, ICE has also surged enforcement efforts targeting immigrant truck drivers. Munmeeth Soni, legal director at the Sikh Coalition, described the administration’s attacks on immigrant drivers as “a nationalist project they’re undertaking to remove foreign nationals from the workforce in the trucking industry.”

Judges continue to block Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing taxpayer data with immigration enforcement entities. On September 8, a three-judge panel on a federal appeals court found that the IRS likely violated taxpayer privacy protections when it disclosed information from tens of thousands of tax returns to ICE. The ruling affirms earlier court decisions to prevent such disclosures, keeping the prohibition on data sharing between the IRS and ICE in place while litigation continues.

“Congress has set strict parameters around the sharing of taxpayer information for a reason — that trust in the tax system depends on protection of taxpayer information,” said Nina Olson of the Center for Taxpayer Rights in a statement, describing the order as “a resounding victory for the protection of all taxpayers’ right to the confidentiality of their tax information.”

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    Stories of Impact

    Fran: “The wait has become endless. A year of processes, of dreams of a better life, of yearning for security and stability for my family. Venezuela, a country that once was home, became a place where workplace persecution forced me to seek refuge elsewhere. One of my sons was also enrolled in the program and he went ahead, and we had hope of reuniting, and when they had already requested our travel documents and we were in the process of buying plane tickets the USRAP prohibition came into effect, freezing our plans. Months of anxiety, of uncertainty, of unanswered questions: When will we be able to be together again? The distance is a weight we carry, a constant reminder of what we have yet to achieve. Uncertainty is a lonely path, but the hope of reuniting with my son is what drives me to move forward, not to lose faith in a future where we can be together and safe.”

    Samuel: “My name is Samuel. I was approved by USCIS as a refugee in March 2024, and since September of that year I had a U.S. resettlement agency assigned to my case. I currently live in a third country with my partner, with whom I have shared a stable relationship for more than eleven years. In January 2025, I was called to repeat my medical exams, but only a few days later everything was suspended after the change of government in the United States. Since then, our process has been frozen, and we remain stranded without clear answers — with our suitcases full of hope, waiting for the moment to finally travel. These months have been emotionally very hard. Living for so long in uncertainty, unable to move forward or plan for the future, has deeply affected our mental and emotional well-being. As an LGBT refugee couple — and in my case, living with HIV — every day here brings constant challenges to our health, safety, and hope. Despite the pain and frustration, we continue to believe in the possibility of a better life. We share our story because we know we are not alone, and because behind every paused case there are human beings simply seeking safety, acceptance, and the chance to rebuild their lives with dignity.”

    Find more stories of impact here, and watch this space for new stories as they arise. Have a story to share? You can share it with us via this form for refugees overseas or this form for refugees, immigrants and service providers in the U.S.