Following the Trump-era downsizing, building capacity back up to adapt to Biden’s much higher refugee caps proved difficult. According to agency leaders, suitable caseworkers need to have a specialized skill set to serve new immigrants, including extensive language skills, which explains why the restoration of the refugee program was slow-going.
The U.S. resettled roughly 11,400 refugees in 2021; 25,400 refugees in 2022; and 60,000 in 2023 before crossing the 100,000 threshold this year.
Unprecedented polarization
Refugee resettlement leaders say the newfound volatility in the federal government’s approach to refugee resettlement is the product of deepening polarization around immigration. As newcomers who arrive via a regulated, legal pathway, refugees hadn’t engendered significant backlash in the past.
But that has started to change.
“Ever since President Carter codified refugee resettlement, and even before that, it was a bipartisan issue. It was bipartisan supported,” said Justin Howell, executive director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Atlanta, a resettlement agency that relocated more than 1,500 refugees from 34 countries in fiscal year 2024, 44% of whom were children.
“It’s only recently that our politics have gotten to the point where immigration has become so heavily politicized,” he said. “I wish we could get back and really look at it from a policy lens, actual data, rather than just emotion. That’s the problem. That’s what this is about, right? It’s about emotion.”
Mixon and Zangandou explained that concerns over border security have led some to conflate refugees with migrants who come to the country illegally.
“There’s some rhetoric around the idea of there being a ‘good’ immigrant and a ‘bad’ immigrant. But I feel like anti-immigrant sentiment is anti-immigrant sentiment. It impacts refugees. It impacts everyone,” Mixon said.
According to Zangandou, evolving political realities and increased “animosity toward the work that we do” have led Inspiritus to spend more time thinking about safety for staffers and refugees.
A new sudden change in policy could have severe implications for agencies like Inspiritus, and it could represent a turning of the page for communities like Clarkston. Still, Zangandou said those facing persecution in other countries would be most affected, if the U.S. refugee program is drastically reduced or no longer exists.
“It’s about life and death for them,” she said.
Resettlement leaders say people locked out of the refugee program may see no other choice for themselves but to try to reach the U.S. via the southern border, and try their luck there.
To support refugees, please click the button below and select the "Refugee Services" fund.
