As Trump cuts number of refugees, agencies still have plenty of work to do

screening of refugees for potential terrorist threats. In 2015, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

Advocates for refugees say they already received extensive vetting from the Department of Homeland Security.

They say that resettlement reflects U.S. humanitarian values, brings in entrepreneurs and advances American strategic interests by relieving allies such as Jordan of the strain of frontline refugee services.

Ms. Agana-Williams said that when the administration first reduced refugee admissions a year ago, some refugees grew anxious here. “We gave them all the assurances: ‘You are not affected, you are already here,’” she said. But some wonder when relatives, still in refugee camps, can come here.

Under long-standing protocols, a United Nations agency determines which people displaced by war or other crises have no prospects of returning home safely.

When the U.N. refers refugees to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security conducts security screenings and other background checks. The State Department determines each year how many refugees will enter. It then refers them to nine national organizations, which have local affiliates such as the three in Pittsburgh.

These national organizations are planning to close more than 20 local ones across the United States, according to Reuters. None in Pennsylvania have closed to date, according to the state Department of Human Services.

Although overall refugee numbers are down, larger agencies may actually see increases while smaller ones are cut back under the administration’s call to consolidate agency work, said Kathleen Newland, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and a longtime researcher in refugee trends.

She said there are multiple theories for why resettlements are low nationwide — such as U.S. officials slowwalking security screening, or prioritizing cases in which people already in the United States are seeking asylum — as opposed to refugees in a foreign camp seeking to come here.

Also, the United Nations may be reluctant to refer Muslim refugees to the United States given the backand-forth court rulings on the Trump administration’s travel restrictions.

“You can’t just crank these systems up and down like an elevator,” she said. “They don’t want to tell people, ‘You’re going to be resettled in the United States,’ if that’s not going to happen.”