Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
when the president donald trump Suspended the refugee program on the very first day of its current administration, thousands of people around the world who were so close to a new life America Found myself abandoned.
Many had already sold properties or terminated leases in preparation for the trip. They had submitted reams of documentation to support their cases, were interviewed by American officials, and in many cases already had tickets to the United States.
As part of Trump’s crackdown on both legal and illegal migration, the Republican president has overturned a decades-old refugee program that has served as a guide for those fleeing war and persecution. In October, he restarted the program but set the number of refugee admissions at a historic low of just 7,500 – mostly white South Africans.
Several new sanctions were announced after an Afghan national became a suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members last week. The Trump administration is also planning to review refugees who came during the Democratic Biden administration. The Trump administration has cited economic and national security concerns for its policy changes.
According to the administration, about 600,000 people from around the world were being prepared to come to the United States as refugees when the program was halted. Dozens of white South Africans have been admitted this year. But a lawsuit by advocates seeking to restart the refugee program has resulted in only about 100 others being admitted, said Mevlude Akay Alp, a lawyer arguing the case.
“It’s important that we don’t abandon those families and that we don’t abandon the thousands of people who were counting on the promise of coming here as refugees,” said Ake Alp of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
associated Press Spoke to three families whose lives have been disrupted by changing policies.
A family separated due to strict restrictions
David had waited years for the opportunity to come to America. After fleeing the civil war in Syria, they settled in northern Iraq. They hoped to find a home that could provide better medical care for their daughter who had fallen from the fourth floor of the family’s apartment building.
After being accepted as refugees in the US, son Ibrahim and his sister Ava relocate to New Haven, Connecticut in November 2024. His parents and one of his brothers were scheduled to fly out in January.
But just two days before he was to board the plane, mother Hayat Fatah fainted during a medical examination and his departure was postponed. MuhammadAnother brother, did not want to leave his parents behind.
“I said: ‘That’s it. The opportunity’s gone.’ But I had to live with my father and mother,” Mohammed said.
Almost a year later, he and his parents are still waiting. Without a residency card, Mohammed cannot work or travel outside his home in the city of Erbil. The family survives on money sent by relatives abroad.
Mohammed had dreams for his new life in America: starting a business or completing his studies to become a petroleum engineer; Getting married and having a family.
“Whether it’s now, a year later, two years later or four years later, I’ll wait and hope that I go,” he said.
In the US, Ibrahim often wakes up early to teach people online before going to his job as a math teacher at a private school, and then takes care of his sister when he gets home. She said her mother often cries while talking because she wishes she was in America to help take care of her daughter.
Ibrahim said one consolation is that he has been welcomed in America, with volunteers stepping up to take him and his sister to frequent doctor’s appointments and helping them adjust to their new lives.
“I really appreciate the kindness of the people here,” he said.
After a decade in limbo, a Chinese pastor wonders when his turn will come
Chinese Christian Lu Taiji fled Thailand more than a decade ago, fearing persecution for his beliefs. Since then he has been in legal limbo awaiting resettlement in the United States.
Lu said he has long admired America for its Christian character — a place where he feels he and his family “can seek freedom.” He said he was disappointed that people like him and his family, who had legally applied for refugee status, faced so many difficulties in getting to the United States.
Lu said, “I oppose illegal immigration. Many people are fake refugees or illegal immigrants, they have never faced persecution. I oppose it.” “But I hope America can accept people like us, real refugees who have faced real persecution. … It’s really disappointing.”
Lu comes from a long lineage of dissent: he was born into a family that the Chinese Communist Party branded as a “hostile element” because of land ownership and ties to a competing political party. A teacher and poet, Lu’s interest in history, banned by the Chinese state, grew when he paid tribute to the bloody Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989.
In 2004, Lu was arrested after police found secretly published poems and essays criticizing Chinese politics and the education system. After his release, Lu became a Christian and began preaching, which led to an investigation by local authorities. Year after year, authorities knocked on their doors and warned them not to organize protests or publish comments criticizing the party.
With Chinese leader Xi Jinping coming to power, controls were tightened. When Beijing arrested hundreds of rights lawyers in 2015, Lu fled with his family, worried that police would come to arrest him. After traveling through Southeast Asia, Lu and his family settled in Thailand, where he applied for refugee status at the United Nations.
Eight years later, the United Nations informed Lu that the US had accepted his application. But their first flight to April 2024 was postponed because Lu’s sons’ passports had expired. The second, scheduled for January 22, 2025, was canceled without explanation, and the most recent, scheduled for February 26, was canceled shortly after Trump’s inauguration. His application has been put on hold indefinitely, Lu said.
Today, Lu makes a modest living as a teacher and pastor in northern Thailand. He is separated from his wife and children in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, but says he has no choice if he wants to earn money and support his family.
“I am very supportive of all of Trump’s policies because I think only President Trump can eliminate the CCP,” Lu said, using an acronym referring to the Chinese Communist Party. “So I have no complaints. I just wait quietly.”
‘I don’t want to lose her’
Louis Arrived in the United States as a refugee in September 2024. He left his wife and two children in East Africa, hoping to be reunited in America soon.
But this dream faded with Trump’s return to the presidency a few months later.
Lewis, who insisted on being identified only by his first name out of concern that speaking publicly could complicate his case, was told in January that a request he had made to bring his family to the US had been put on hold due to changes in refugee policies.
Now, family members live thousands of miles apart without knowing when they will meet again. His wife Apollina and children, aged 2 and 3, are in a refugee camp in Uganda. Lewis is in Kentucky.
“I don’t want to lose her, and she doesn’t want to lose me,” said Lewis, who resettled in Kentucky with the help of the International Rescue Committee. Referring to the moment he received the notice, he said, “The hope I had slowly vanished. I thought we would never meet again.”
Louis and Apollina’s families had applied for refugee status after fleeing the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Louise’s application, which was initiated by her parents, was approved, Apollina’s, which was made separately by her parents, was not approved. They hoped that if Lewis applied for family reunification in the US, it would ease the way for Apollina and the two children to be brought over.
Apollina thought that, as the wife of a refugee, it would take no more than a year for her to reunite with her husband, who now works in an appliance factory and has already applied for permanent residence.
The isolation has not been easy for her and the children, who live in a tent in the refugee camp. The little boy, who was 7 months old at the time of Lewis’s departure, cries whenever he sees his father on video calls. The older man keeps asking where Lewis is and when he will meet him.
Apollina fears that as time goes on, the children will forget their father.
“I feel very bad because I miss my husband a lot,” Apollina said in a phone interview from Uganda. “I pray for him that God will enable him to have patience until we meet again.”
,
Santana reported from Washington, Kang from Beijing and Salomon from Miami. Associated Press writers Evelyn Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, and Salar Salim in Erbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.