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.

The latest: Investigation into “unlawful” voters ensnares naturalized citizens; stranded immigrants in Liberia speak out as forced third country transfers hit record; and mass deportations worsen affordability crisis.

“Unlawful Voter Initiative” whistleblower warns U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is illegally accessing state voter records and sweeping naturalized U.S. citizens into its investigation. A federal whistleblower disclosed that USCIS’s Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) was instructed to halt other duties to build law enforcement files against purported “unlawful” voters, including individuals FDNS already knows are naturalized U.S. citizens. The disclosure, obtained by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) and released on September 13, reveals that USCIS has directed officers to access state voter databases by misrepresenting who they are, in potential violation of state law. For example, officers are told to impersonate the voter by entering their personally identifiable information, or in states such as Virginia, attest under penalty of law that the record is their own or that they have the voter’s permission. Targets of USCIS’s initiative have no way to know they are being investigated or to correct erroneous Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data, which was described by agency leadership as having been compiled using “supplemental magic.”

According to the whistleblower, tens or hundreds of thousands of people in all 50 states, including naturalized U.S. citizens, are under investigation. The officers have been given a quota to review at least 40 people per day, allowing them about 12 minutes to assess each person’s citizenship and voting history. 

Leader Schumer said, “The Department of Homeland Security is sending hundreds of officers who should be focused on our security on a wild goose chase to prove Trump’s long-debunked election conspiracy theories – and DHS is telling officers to lie to do it. This new DHS initiative is nothing more than an unlawful order by the government to silence the voices of Americans.” 

Individuals deported to Liberia speak out as August sees 300+ removal flights to 40 countries. Last month, Liberia received deported non-Liberians for the first time, largely from Latin America – Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela – and from other African countries like Cameroon and Eritrea. CBS News spoke to several Latin American nationals, most of whom had received legal protections in the United States that prevented their deportation to their home countries due to risks of persecution or torture. DHS appears to be targeting people with these protections for forced third country transfers, leaving them stranded – and sometimes indefinitely imprisoned – in countries they have never visited and sometimes never heard of.  

The men and one woman removed to Liberia expressed feeling stranded and in limbo. They are not detained, but they were told not to venture far from the hotel where they are staying for their own safety. Carlos Tellez Sanchez, who lived in Dallas with his wife and baby, said that returning to Venezuela is not an option, fearing he would be in danger there.

In August, Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor tracked 325 removal flights to 40 countries, a 35 percent increase from a year ago. Forced third country transfers reached a record high: 16 flights to 13 countries, including removal flights carrying third country nationals to Liberia, Burundi, and Saint Lucia for the first time. Nearly 40 percent of all removal flights were to Mexico, and about a third to Guatemala and Honduras. Flights to Haiti are now occurring weekly rather than monthly, even as the State Department maintains a “Level 4 – Do Not Travel” advisory due to crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest, and limited health care.

New report finds mass deportation campaign worsens affordability crisis and argues for citizenship. The ACLU and AFL-CIO released a report warning that the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign kills jobs, weakens workplace protections, and slows business activity. The campaign risks wiping out nearly six million jobs, half of which are currently held by U.S. citizens. Already, ‘de-documentation’ efforts have stripped work authorization for nearly two million people, disrupting key industries like construction and caregiving. 

The report documents the economic shock felt in communities where immigration enforcement surges and raids terrify workers and families, resulting in an estimated 8.1 billion fewer visits to businesses and between $3 billion and $14 billion in lost annual spending. The groups argue for a broad path to citizenship that would empower workers, stabilize families, and raise wages for both immigrant and U.S.-born workers.

Latest Headlines

• Associated Press: Change in human trafficking policy could make some minors easier to deport
• New York Times: U.S. Fast-Tracked Deportation of Ecuadorean Politician Despite Torture Fears
• Chicago Tribune: Gov. JB Pritzker says state investigation of fatal Midway Blitz shooting ‘near impossible’ to complete
• Politico: Trump has ended TPS for 13 countries. Salvadorans are still waiting for an answer.
• The Guardian: Exiled Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano detained by ICE in Florida