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


June 17, 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: Pacito litigation continues; senators condemn the refugee ban; Minnesota protesters face federal charges; and World Refugee Day is on Saturday.

CWS and others continue to pursue litigation challenging the refugee ban after judge grants motion to amend Pacito complaint. On Monday, a federal judge issued an order allowing CWS and other plaintiffs to continue our legal case against the Trump administration’s indefinite refugee ban. For more on the amended complaint and the refugee plaintiffs, see CWS’s explainer.

The news comes in the wake of the administration’s May 21 “emergency” Presidential Determination (PD) allowing ten thousand additional Afrikaners from South Africa to enter the U.S. under the auspices of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

Senators denounce refugee ban. In a June 8 letter addressed to President Trump, Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Alex Padilla of California condemned the administration’s decision to increase the PD for South Africans alone while excluding refugees of all other nationalities. Over 120,000 vetted refugees who were approved for resettlement as the ban took effect remain stranded overseas without a clear path to safety in the United States. The letter decries the emergency PD as a “betrayal of our nation’s longstanding bipartisan commitment to serve as a safe haven for those fleeing persecution.”

Senators Durbin and Padilla also condemned the administration’s failure to appropriately consult with Congress before updating the PD. They pointed out that there is no “unforeseen refugee emergency” in South Africa to provide the legal justification for adjusting the refugee admissions target under the Refugee Act of 1980. “By contrast,” they wrote, “there are numerous forced displacement crises and conflicts worldwide that would justify an emergency increase in the ceiling.” They called upon the administration to admit refugees impacted by crises in Sudan, Haiti, Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as religious minority communities in Iran and others around the world.

See CWS’s statement on the emergency PD and take action to urge your Members of Congress to fight for refugees who remain stranded overseas.

Fifteen people who protested immigration enforcement in Minnesota during “Operation Metro Surge” charged with crimes. Yesterday, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security announced that fifteen protesters are facing a series of charges, including conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers and the destruction of government property. Daniel Rosen, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, who announced the charges at a press conference alongside a Homeland Security Investigations official, refused to answer reporters’ repeated questions about whether the protesters physically harmed any federal agents or officers. “This is an act of political oppression,” said Bruce Nestor, an attorney representing one of the protestors. “It’s designed to punish and intimidate.”

In December and January, federal prosecutors charged 36 people with similar crimes, but the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota has dropped half of those cases.

World Refugee Day is on June 20. Across the U.S., service providers, governments, congregations, and communities are preparing to observe World Refugee Day on Saturday, June 20. Use this interactive map from We Are All America to find out about events taking place near you, see the top five ways to take action to defend refuge, and reach out to your Members of Congress to urge them to push back against policies that threaten refugees in the U.S. and around the world.

Another way to celebrate World Refugee Day: read Elizabeth Holtzman’s must-read opinion piece outlining the moral imperative for the U.S. to meet its legal obligations to people fleeing persecution. Holtzman is a former Member of Congress and a coauthor of the Refugee Act of 1980, which established the modern asylum system and the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

Today’s Headlines

    Opportunities to Take Action:

    Community Resources:

    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.