A federal freeze on spending to resettle refugees means some recent arrivals in Michigan may not receive taxpayer funded housing and food benefits, prompting alarm among some who serve them.
“Everyone was quite stunned when that order came out,” Kelli Dobner, chief growth officer for Samaritas, told The Detroit News. “We didn’t see this coming.”
Samaritas, a social service nonprofit that settles about half of the refugees coming to Michigan – 1,700 in 2024 – is among several agencies and programs impacted by a recent “stop work” order from the President Donald Trump’s administration to evaluate spending on refugee resettlement.
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The pause comes at the same time the administration has halted new refugee admissions, which were expected to reach 4,580 in Michigan during the current fiscal year.
The decision put an $8 million hole in Samaritas’ budget, limiting the agency’s ability to provide rent, food, clothing, furnishings and other things typically provided to refugees when they arrive in Michigan, which accepts more refugees per capita than all but nine states, according to the Immigration Research Initiative.
“To continue to serve the refugees that are here as was promised, it would have to be done through some other financial means, through philanthropy or the like, so we are deciding right now what that looks like and what we’re going to do,” Dobner told The News.
“People who are dependent on us for a roof over their head, food assistance, medical support…That has been halted at this point,” Lukas Ziomkowski, Samaritas’ VP of refugee services, told WILX.
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Trump’s order, which “immediately suspended” grant funding to conduct a 90-day review of refugee programs and other foreign assistance, came with letters to resettlement agencies to “stop all work” and “not incur any new costs” through existing grants, according to a letter from the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration cited by The Associated Press.
The letter also ordered agencies to “cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible.”
The order impacts about 26,494 refugees and recipients of Special Immigration Visas nationwide, which presumably include many who participate in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Newcomer Rental Subsidy program.
That program is funded by both state and federal taxpayers, and it’s unclear how the federal order will impact the program, which provides $500 monthly rental subsidies for “newcomers” for up to a year.
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Poppy Sias Hernandez, executive director of Whitmer’s Office of Global Michigan that oversees the program, told lawmakers last year 1,242 households were receiving the subsidies, including 537 refugees, 504 Afghans, 69 special immigrant visas, 61 U.S. citizens born to immigrant families in the country, 35 Ukrainian humanitarian parolees, 24 asylees, 7 Haitian entrants, and “5 with Lawful Permanent Residence.”
Nearly 3,500 refugees and migrants with special immigration visas resettled in Michigan in last fiscal year, with the bulk coming from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Syria, and Venezuela, while another 1,186 arrived between the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 and the end of 2024, according to state data cited by The News.
Those numbers have swelled significantly since Trump’s first term, when he cut the cap on refugee arrivals. Only about 500 resettled in each of 2020 and 2021.
In the decade leading up to 2023, Michigan resettled a total of 22,769 refugees, which equates to 227 per 100,000 residents, according to the Immigration Research Initiative.
“Over the past 10 years, the states that have received the most refugees have been Texas (44,000), California (40,000), New York (27,000), and Michigan (23,000),” the nonprofit reported in 2023.
While Michigan resettlement agencies expressed shock and confusion about the Trump administration halt on refugee admissions and federal funding, it’s not without precedent.
Trump temporarily stopped refugee admissions as the 45th POTUS, and restarted the program after a 120 day review that produced stronger vetting protocols.
Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program” states that “within 90 days … the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall submit a report to the President through the Homeland Security Advisor regarding whether resumption of entry of refugees … would be in the interests of the United States.”
“Biden’s disastrous policies led to an immigration crisis,” U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce Twp., chair of the House Republican Conference, told The News. “I think this is the right move by President Trump. The pause will help ensure this program is secure, effective, sustainable and, most importantly, protecting Americans.”
The decision to halt taxpayer resources for refugees comes as an Afghan refugee in Michigan faces criminal charges after police said he tracked his caseworker to the man’s home and stabbed him multiple times last week.
Gul Nabi Rahmati, 34, now faces charges of attempted murder and felonious assault for the attack on Samaritas caseworker Zubair Mansuori. Police allege Rahmati also attempted to stab another man who came to help Mansuori during the attack, MLive reports.
“Both men are Afghan nationals and reside legally in the United States,” according to the news site.