MIAMI: Refugees had been arriving in the United States at levels unseen in nearly three decades, assisted by nonprofits and ordinary people across the political spectrum.
More than 160,000 Americans across every state signed up to resettle newcomers through the Welcome Corps, a public-private effort launched two years ago. More than 800,000 new arrivals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ukraine and Afghanistan were also welcomed with help from financial supporters through a legal tool known as humanitarian parole.
That screeched to a halt after President Donald Trump’s inauguration and his administration’s immediate 90-day suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program — a move that stranded thousands of vetted refugees, cut nonprofits’ staffing and left sponsors uneasy about the future of fledgling programs they felt had enriched their own lives.
Rivly Breus is among those feeling anxious. Working from a pastel peach house in South Florida, the crisis counselor has backed the resettlement of more than 30 people from Haiti, Ukraine and Cuba. She wanted to show them how to “thrive,” she said, rather than “being in survival mode all the time.”
“It’s also left us in limbo because we’re not able to answer some of the questions that our sponsees have,” Breus said. “We’re not able to give them the encouragement that we usually do, or the hope.”
NEW APPROACHES
New sponsorship pathways increased US resettlement capacity in recent years.
Humanitarian parole had been applied for seven decades toward migrants unable to use standard routes. The Biden administration expanded it for Ukrainians and with another program known as CHNV allowing up to 30,000 monthly entrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The intention was to dissuade illegal border crossings by providing two-year work authorizations, though they weren’t a path to citizenship.
Migrants needed to clear security checks and have US-based financial supporters. The nonprofit Welcome.US launched a platform to safely connect parolees and sponsors.
The State Department allowed private sponsors to ease refugees’ transition through the Welcome Corps beginning in January 2023. Groups of five or more sponsors had to secure at least $2,425 per refugee and commit to planning transportation, housing, education and employment. They could match with pre-approved applicants or name a specific refugee.
“Private sponsorship means we’re not asking a government or the taxpayer to fund this,” Ed Shapiro, a leading Welcome Corps funder, said in an email. “We’re saying, ‘Let us do this for our citizens, religious organizations, businesses and universities who want (or in some cases, need) to do this.’”
More than 9,000 sponsors have welcomed over 4,500 refugees since the program’s first arrivals in June 2023. Private philanthropists and GoFundMe.org established a fund to overcome financial barriers.
The idea was that sponsor circles could provide instant social capital and aid assimilation in a more meaningful way than government case workers.
“It was an initiative that I think was really energizing for folks,” said Marissa Tirona, president of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. “(For) everyday folks, neighbors, communities to establish more welcoming localities across the United States.”
Proponents pitched sponsorship as an intimate form of service that enabled ordinary people to supplement the resettlement agencies’ work and take an active role in reshaping their communities.
However, the Department of Homeland Security now says its predecessors abused humanitarian parole. When asked about Welcome Corps, a State Department spokesperson said Secretary of State Marco Rubio is ensuring all foreign assistance programs are “efficient and consistent” with the “America First”
“Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” Rubio said in a statement.
A ‘STEPPING STONE’ IN MIAMI
Breus keeps busy helping.
When she’s not meeting patients or filling out grant applications in the afternoons for the antipoverty nonprofit, the Erzule Paul Foundation, where she runs operations, Breus said she enjoys taking new arrivals on outings around Miami like this winter’s photo session with a mall Santa. Her mother helps. They jumped at the opportunity to be a “stepping stone,” according to Breus.
She said ten foundation employees formed a “sponsor circle” and created an online profile that prospective migrants could browse. They indicated how many people they could sponsor and what resources they could offer. Together, the sponsors help with transportation, interpretation, job applications and school enrollment.
“Just the basics to help get them off their feet,” Breus said.
The experience was rewarding enough that Breus used Welcome.US to help Ukrainians resettle, but she says it has been pretty “shaky” lately. She’s been attending webinars so she can best advise her “sponsees,” some of whom are exploring moves to other countries.
Among them is Flor, who studied psychology in Haiti and works part time as an overnight stocker while taking English language classes. Flor asked to be identified only by her nickname because she fears deportation.
Flor had hoped her 5-year-old daughter, still in Haiti, might join her with Breus’ help.
“This week, with the news, I don’t even have the courage when I’m talking to her to look at her because I feel like I’m failing her,” she said Jan. 23 through a Creole-language interpreter.
FROM UTAH TO PENNSYLVANIA, SPONSORS SCRAMBLE
After frantically trying to expedite applications, sponsors are now sitting with growing uncertainty.
Provoked by the urgency of their refugees’ circumstances, some participants are lobbying lawmakers to uphold initiatives they say have broad appeal and praying they meet the unexplained “case-by-case” basis on which arrivals are now allowed.
Clydie Wakefield, 72, flew to D.C. this month, hoping her representatives’ offices might help. The retired teacher, who described herself as “conservative leaning but open,” began sponsoring an Afghan family after virtually tutoring their sister in English.
Wakefield said she’s not a “mover and shaker.” She just wanted to follow her Mormon faith’s calling to “give comfort to those in need of comfort.” She’d spent the holiday season finding housing and making final arrangements. Bedding and other necessities bought by her church community sit in a storage unit.
The woman and her siblings were maybe one month away from flying over when Wakefield said the executive order hit.
“It was really discouraging. But she just keeps hoping,” Wakefield said. “And I’m inspired by her. I’m going to continue to hope.”
Chuck Pugh, 78, said he felt “increasing pressure” to get an Afghan arrival’s parents, three sisters and two brothers from Pakistan to the Philadelphia area.
A political independent, Pugh said he gathered a bipartisan Welcome Corps group last July, including a Trump supporter. The family underwent an hours-long interview at the US embassy in Islamabad, he said, and reported for medical checks in November. He raised all the money required to cover post-arrival expenses for the seven-person family.
They redoubled their efforts this January because he felt they were “so very close.” Pugh said he can’t afford to give up — though he expects the family will be stuck for the near future.
“If we can be at the airport to welcome this family, that would really be one of the greatest days of my life,” Pugh said.