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.
The latest: Refugee ban continues as the U.S. admits thousands of Afrikaners; judge bars immigration agents from making arrests in immigration courts; Catholic diocese locked in a legal battle to stop border wall construction near a sacred site.
As the refugee ban continues, over 6,600 South Africans have entered the United States via the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) this fiscal year. Yesterday, the New York Times detailed how the Trump administration has reshaped USRAP by implementing an indefinite ban on refugee admissions while allowing a group of predominantly white South Africans to enter the country under an exception to the ban. All but three of the people resettled through USRAP this fiscal year have been from South Africa.
The New York Times profiled one South African who was admitted after writing and sharing antisemitic social media posts. In April 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would monitor individuals’ social media presence and use evidence of antisemitic activity as grounds to deny immigration benefits. By contrast, last year, the administration detained and attempted to deport Georgetown University professor Dr. Badar Khan Suri in connection with social media posts he made in support of Palestinian rights.
The administration’s approach to USRAP demonstrates its “indifference to the plight of nonwhite refugees,” said Sharif Ali, the president of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). IRAP, CWS, and other partners are suing the administration over the refugee ban.
Take action: urge your Members of Congress to fight for the over 100,000 refugees who remain stranded overseas because of the ban even though they had already been approved for resettlement as President Trump took office.
Judge bars immigration arrests inside of courthouses. Yesterday’s ruling, which applies nationwide, came in a class-action lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) for their practice of arresting people who appeared in court for legal proceedings in their immigration cases.
“We are relieved that people can now be able to go to court without fear of arbitrary arrests in the middle of their proceedings,” said Jordan Wells of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the three decades leading up to the second Trump administration, Democratic and Republican administrations upheld policies of avoiding immigration enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as courthouses, schools, houses of worship, and medical settings. The Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (H.R. 1061/S. 455) would codify limitations on immigration enforcement in places where people participate in essential activities or receive essential services.
Citing religious liberty concerns, Catholic diocese fights Department of Homeland Security effort to seize land for wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security sued the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico over whether it can seize 14 acres of land near a 29-foot tall limestone statue of Jesus. The statue – which sits atop a mountain – draws pilgrims from around the world.
Advocates say that building a section of border wall in the area would desecrate the land, violating the religious freedom of those who journey there to worship. In a June 19 response to the administration’s legal filings, the diocese argued that both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act forbid the government from taking possession of the sacred site to build a border wall.
Deacon Jim Winder, the chancellor of the diocese, told the New York Times that the statue “is meant to symbolize unity and hope,” in contrast to the proposed “30-foot iron monstrosity that symbolizes exclusion and division.” The Las Cruces mountain is not the only sacred site under threat because of border wall construction. In an April error that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) described as “inadvertent,” federal contractors bulldozed Indigenous art that may be over a thousand years old.
Today’s Headlines
- The Guardian: ‘Devastating’: lives of nurses and patients upended by Trump migrant crackdown
- ABC News: Supreme Court makes it easier for border agents to deport green card holders accused of crimes
- Associated Press: Mexico, like the US, extends birthright citizenship to children born on its soil
- CBS News: “I’m begging my own country to let my wife go”: Veteran fights to prevent wife’s deportation
- The New York Times: Federal judge bars ICE from making arrests in immigration courts
Opportunities to Take Action:
- CWS: Top 5 Ways to Take Action on World Refugee Day 2026
- CWS Action Alert: With All Eyes on Iran, Palestinians Continue to Suffer Daily Attacks and Constant Hunger
- Sign Petition to the White House: Keep Our Promise to Refugees
- CWS Action Alert: Tell Your State Lawmakers – Do Not Let Refugees & Other Newcomers Go Hungry as Federal SNAP Cuts Take Effect
- CWS Action Alert: Immigrant Children Are Under Attack: Urge Congress to Demand Safety and Due Process
- Sign the #WeWillWelcome pledge
Community Resources:
- CLINIC: Parish Toolkit: Supporting Immigrants in a Time of Need
- CWS: Ten Major Immigration and Refugee Policy Changes Since January 2025
- CWS: Bill Summary of the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act
- Refugee Storytellers Collective: Making Informed Decisions: A Risk Assessment Worksheet for Public Engagement
- ACLU: Enforcement at the Airport
- United Church of Christ: Love Knows No Borders Resources
- IRAP: Refugee Re-vetting and Detention
- USAHello: Multilingual Immigration Guide with clear, direct-to-community information
- IRAP: What do the recent U.S. immigration changes mean for Afghans?
- NILC: How to Find a Loved One After a U.S. Immigration Arrest and What to Do if Arrested or Detained by Immigration
- CWS: How the One Big Beautiful Bill Will Impact You
- Just Security: Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
- CWS: Story Submission Form for Refugees Overseas
Stories of Impact
Loni is a mother of six children who fled violence and torture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The family’s flight to Houston to reunite with her husband and the children’s father was scheduled for February – but it was cancelled after the ban went into effect. Loni and her children are now stuck indefinitely in Malawi.
The Sung family are refugees from Myanmar who were split up as they fled for safe harbor. Part of the family has been resettled in Texas, and they have been waiting for years as the rest of the family goes through the resettlement process. The flight was scheduled for early February, and the family here bought a four-bedroom home just to accommodate them. Their flight was cancelled at the last minute.
Taq, a resettlement caseworker in Ohio, has witnessed first-hand the devastating impact of recent Executive Orders that have halted refugee arrivals, leaving families like his own in limbo. Taq’s cousin and his family were scheduled to arrive in the United States on February 20th but had their flights canceled, and his brothers, who are awaiting asylum interviews, are living in fear. “They are now left stranded…those still in [Afghanistan] have seen their hopes crushed.”
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.
