Refugee aid groups struggle as arrival numbers fluctuate
Despite the COLUMBUS — political and legal wrangling over President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban, the number of refugees being resettled in Columbus and other U.S. cities has increased from 400 people a week to about 900.
That is still considerably fewer than the number of refugees originally set to arrive in the United States each week in this federal fiscal year under former President Barack Obama’s plan. In October, for example, 9,945 refugees arrived, or about 2,300 a week.
But the recent increase after this year’s slowdown is enough to please the charitable organizations responsible for helping these refugees start new lives in America.
As of Thursday, 42,409 refugees had arrived in the United States — including 2,149 in Ohio — since the federal fiscal year began Oct. 1, according to data from the Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System.
Although the monthly numbers dropped off from February to March after Trump’s first executive order, issued on Jan. 27, they are on the rise again in April despite Trump’s second order, which was halted on March 15 by an injunction by a federal judge in Hawaii. Ohio’s refugee-admissions figure in February, for example, was 79; it was 191 in April as of Thursday, with three days left in the month.
“No one is saying we should take them all in,” Angie Plummer, executive director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), said of the unprecedented 65.3 million people worldwide who have been displaced from their homes. “But we can do better than we’re doing.”
Her group resettled 40 refugees in February, 11 in March and 34 in April. And it has helped a total of 596 people in this federal fiscal year.
Trump’s January order denied entry to all refugees for up to 120 days and all travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — for 90 days, saying the measures were needed to keep out Islamic State and al-Qaida fighters migrating from Middle East hot spots.
Federal courts shot down parts of that initial executive order, but their rulings did not affect parts affecting refugees, leaving the nine groups that are designated by the State Department to resettle refugees bracing for funding reductions and scrambling to raise money. Trump’s second order, issued March 6, continued to impose a 90-day ban on travelers, but it removed Iraq from the list of countries.
The national resettlement groups and their local affiliates say that although they are grateful for the bump in recent refugee arrivals, Trump’s action is causing considerable challenges because they have laid off hundreds of employees. For example, World Relief is closing five of its offices, including one in Columbus that is to shut down in mid-July.
That’s because Trump’s second executive order, like the first, reduces the number of refugees that will be admitted into the country in this federal fiscal year, from a planned 110,000 to 50,000. April’s increase in new admissions will mean that the country reaches the 50,000 quota sooner, with some people estimating the cap will be hit by mid-June.
Simply put, fewer refugees means less money for the agencies that resettle them. The State Department pays each refugee agency $950 per person to cover administrative costs to provide services for 90 days; an additional $1,125 goes directly to each refugee to cover expenses such as food, housing and pocket money.
Plummer said resettlement services make up about a third of her agency’s nearly $4 million budget. To cut costs, she said, she had to eliminate 10 positions, including a Congolese resettlement case manager, an Arabic-speaking healthcare worker and an Arabic-speaking resettlement worker, making it difficult to communicate with new arrivals from those parts of the world. “It makes a real mess of things,” Plummer said.
Until recently, her organization, which is affiliated with Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries, was operating under a $300,000 deficit, she said. But budget cuts and donations have helped fill the gap.
Nadia Kasvin, director and co-founder of US Together, which is affiliated with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, said it’s hard to provide the same kind of services her clients depend on after cutting her staff from 13 to six. “Nobody is doing just one job anymore,” she said.
The worst part is not knowing what will happen next month, let alone next year, if resettlement activity doesn’t return to normal, Kasvin said.
Columbus’ third resettlement agency, World Relief Columbus, stopped accepting new refugees for resettlement last month because of its impending closure on July 15. Resettlement agencies usually work with refugees for at least 90 days after their arrival, helping them with clothing, food, housing, employment services, follow-up medical care and other services to get them on their feet.
“I’m down to two part-time staff and myself,” said Kay Lipovsky, the group’s office manager. “We had eight.”
For decades, blossoms have been sparse in California’s barren deserts. But heavy rainfall over the winter helped cover the drought-ridden landscape with the lushest blanket of blooming spring wildflowers in recent memory.
And Ohio State University ecologists didn’t pass up the chance to document the floral phenomena.
“This was, if not a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity, a once-in-a-career opportunity,” said ecologist Ryan McCarthy.
For more than 30 years, OSU scientists have surveyed and recorded every cactus, plant and shrub in two research sites near Cottonwood Spring in Joshua Tree National Park.
In a year, the sites experience anywhere from less than an inch of rain to more than a foot. Most desert species have adapted to the variable climate; some seeds lie dormant for decades, waiting for a wet season.
This year, the job of tallying up desert five-spots, Arizona lupines and Fremont’s pincushions was so fantastic that OSU scientists made two trips.
“There are species there that have not been seen in 20 years,” said ecologist Natasha Woods. “This is our first chance to see how the community was affected by the drought.”
During California’s worst drought in a century, many of the woody shrubs that dominate the desert landscape died.
Because climate change is expected to bring more severe, frequent and long-lasting dry spells in the region, McCarthy and Woods are exploring how drought-induced changes to the landscape will affect the wildflowers that depend on shrubs for shelter and soil nutrients.
“It’s a natural experiment. We’re seeing the impact of climate change on this iconic American landscape,” McCarthy said. “The desert has changed dramatically. This is a harbinger of what the future will look like.”
Ohio, on the other hand, puts on a dependable display of spring ephemerals, he said.
“We have a very similar amount of rainfall every year,” McCarthy said. “The fact that we see the same wildflowers bloom in the forest every year is a result of our very stable climate.”
McCarthy and Woods are racing to publish their data, and they are eager to see what forms of life will emerge on the unpredictable landscape next year.
There is still time for professional and amateur naturalists to hop on a plane and catch the superbloom in northern California — but not for much longer.
“The ultimate products of this bloom will have to wait in the soil for the next rainy season,” McCarthy said. “It could be next year, it could be in a decade; it could be 20 or 30 years from now that this happens again.”