When US President Trump suspended the refugee programme on day one of his current administration, thousands of people around the world who’d been so close to a new life in America found themselves abandoned. As part of Trump’s crackdown on legal and illegal migration, the Republican president has upended the decades-old refugee programme that has served as a beacon for those fleeing war and persecution.
In October, he resumed the programme but set a historic low of refugee admissions at 7,500 — mostly white South Africans. New restrictions were announced after an Afghan national became the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members last week. The Trump administration also plans a review of refugees let in during the Democratic Biden administration. Trump’s administration has cited economic and national security concerns for its policy changes.
About 6,00,000 people were being processed to come to the US as refugees when the programme was halted, according to the administration. Aside from dozens of white South Africans let in this year, only about 100 others have been admitted as a result of a lawsuit by advocates seeking to restore the refugee programme, said Mevlüde Akay Alp, a lawyer arguing the case.
The Associated Press spoke to three families whose lives have been thrown into disarray because of the changing policies. The Dawoods fled civil war in Syria and settled in northern Iraq. They hoped to find a new home that could provide better medical care for a daughter who had fallen from the fourth floor of the family’s apartment building.
After they were accepted as refugees to the US, son Ibrahim and his sister Ava relocated to Connecticut in November 2024. His parents and one of his brothers were scheduled to fly in January. But just two days before they were to board their flight, mother Hayat Fatah fainted at a medical check and her departure was postponed. Mohammed, another sibling, didn’t want to leave his parents behind. Nearly a year later, he and his parents are still waiting.
In America, Ibrahim wakes up early to tutor people online before going to his job as a math teacher at a private school, and then he takes care of his sister when he gets home. He said his mother often cries when they talk because she wishes she were in America to help care for her daughter. Chinese Christian Lu Taizhi fled to Thailand more than a decade ago, fearing persecution for his beliefs. He’s lived in legal limbo since,
waiting to be resettled in the United States. Lu said he has long admired the US for what he calls its Christian character — a place where he feels he and his family “can seek freedom.” Lu was born into a family branded as “hostile elements” by the Chinese Communist Party for its land ownership and ties to a competing political party. A teacher and poet, Lu grew interested in history banned by the Chinese state, penning tributes to the bloody 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing.
In 2004, Lu was arrested after police found poems and essays he secretly published criticising Chinese politics and the education system. After his release, Lu became a Christian and began preaching, drawing scrutiny from local authorities. With Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s rise to power, controls tightened. President Donald Trump arriving for a signing ceremony with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington.