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

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.

Note: The State of Play team will be on Capitol Hill for the remainder of this week at RCUSA Advocacy Days. The next edition of this resource will be published on Monday, June 15. 

The latest: A judge rules against the immigration adjudication halt, potentially unfreezing millions of applications; new data on refugee resettlement paints a grim picture; and the Senate tees up a massive ICE spending bill for House vote this week. 

Judge unfreezes millions of immigration applications, ruling USCIS halt is arbitrary and capricious. On Friday, a District Court in Rhode Island ruled in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS that several Trump administration immigration restrictions implemented last November should be “vacated and set aside”. The ruling focuses on four separate policies that were imposed following the tragic shooting of two National Guard members in November of last year: 

• The “Benefits Hold Policy.” This policy halted adjudications of a sweeping range of immigration benefits applications – including everything from green card apps to citizenship ceremonies – for nationals of 39 countries. 
• The “Global Asylum Hold.” This policy suspended the final adjudication of all affirmative asylum applications. The policy did not apply to “defensive” claims made in immigration court and allowed some procedural steps to continue, but it held up grants of asylum for a huge number of applications.  
• The “Comprehensive Re-Review Policy.” This policy called for the review and “re-vetting” of already approved benefits requests for the individuals from the 39 countries listed. It is not clear to what extent this policy was fully implemented, or whether it is connected or separate from the ongoing effort to “re-vet” resettled refugees who have not yet adjusted to a green card.  
• The “Country-Specific Factors” policy. This policy consisted of an update to the USCIS policy manual to further target those from the 39 “travel ban” countries, noting that being from one of those countries would be considered a negative factor in the event any benefits applications were moving forward. 

The judge in Rhode Island concluded all of these policies violate the law, writing:  

“The Court is often reminded of a line often repeated in discussions around immigration policy: If people wish to immigrate to the United States, they ought to ‘follow the law’ and ‘do things the right way.’ This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that….But the rule of law has to apply to everyone equally, and, as evident here, USCIS has neither ‘followed the law’ nor ‘done things the right way.’” 

The administration is likely to appeal to the First Circuit, and the full impact of the ruling remains unclear. Some immigration lawyers have raised the question of how USCIS will get the millions of frozen cases back into its processing queue – will congressional assistance or expedite requests be needed?  

New data: A refugee program that served the world now serves only Afrikaners. On June 5, the administration released new resettlement data showing that through the end of May, the only individuals who have been resettled through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program are 6,665 South Africans and 3 Afghans. 

The numbers are now stark.  As illustrated below, in the final 16 months of the Biden administration, 138,000 refugees were resettled across 88 countries. In the first 16 months under Trump, 7,174 refugees have been resettled – 98% from South Africa. So far this calendar year – only South Africans have been resettled by the refuge program.

Comparison: 16 Months of Refugee Resettlement under Biden and Trump 

(Source: Wrapsnet)

Take action here to urge your elected leaders to stand with stranded refugees as we near World Refugee Day on June 20.  

Senate passage tees up vote on massive ICE spending bill in the House. Following a marathon 18-hour “Vote-A-Rama” in which 27 amendments were considered (including several on key ICE guardrails and immigrant protections), the Senate passed a funding bill that would provide nearly $70 billion to further fuel Trump’s mass detention and deportation agenda. The bill includes no substantive legislative guardrails on ICE or Border Patrol activity. Republican leaders did include a last-minute addition to the bill, a $350 million fund that is designed to specifically target cities and states that are determined to not be sufficiently compliant with the administration’s enforcement agenda.

The bill is likely to come up for a vote in the House this week, the last procedural step before it becomes law. Take action here to urge your Representative to vote against the bill, and read CWS’s statement here opposing the bill and urging Congress to instead pursue legislation that upholds human dignity. 

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