Fear rises of new cut in refugees allowed in
After being separated from her son for five years, Jackie Kifuko is still holding out hope that he will be able to join her in Columbus this year.
The former refugee from Uganda fled political persecution in her country, leaving her then2-year-old son there in hopes that he would be safer, with promises that the two would be reunited when she made it to America.
Due to numerous policy changes and bans by President Donald Trump, however, she hasn’t seen her son since 2014 and doesn’t know when she will.
“My story is just a piece of thousands of stories of mothers and fathers in Columbus trying to reunite with their family,” said Kifuko, 35, after she spoke Tuesday at a press conference at Community Refugee and Immigration Services on the North Side about concerns about possible cuts to the nation’s resettlement program.
“But I still have hope,” she added. “The idea of one individual doesn’t reflect what others think of refugees.”
Local resettlement agencies have relocated fewer refugees than in recent years, and they fear that next year could be even worse.
The Columbus area’s two remaining resettlement agencies have helped relocate just over 350 refugees in this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. A third agency closed in 2017. CRIS has resettled one-third the number it had at this time two years ago, said Angie Plummer, the agency’s executive director.
The cap for refugee resettlement for the next federal fiscal year will be set by Sept. 30. The Trump administration has cut the total number of resettled refugees each year he has been in office, and advocates worry that the number could be slashed again.
In early 2017, Trump cut admissions from 110,000 to 50,000 for that fiscal year, and then again for 2018 to 45,000. The total admissions for this fiscal year were capped at a historic low of 30,000.
In the past, Trump has cited security concerns when limiting refugee resettlement and the entry of people from certain countries.
Advocates of refugees say that applicants are heavily vetted, and sometimes wait years to be screened or interviewed, before they are allowed into the country.
“For decades, the United States has accepted thoroughly vetted refugees fleeing persecution,” said Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican. “I support this program.”
Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio also voiced support for the resettlement program.
“Everyone agrees we need tough screening to keep terrorists and violent criminals out. But President Trump wants to point the finger at refugees and use immigration to divide Americans so he can distract from the fact that he has betrayed workers and given massive tax cuts to millionaires at the expense of working families,” Brown said in a statement.
“There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to work together on a bipartisan solution that secures our borders and respects all families.”
As of June 30, the U.S. had resettled 21,260 refugees since the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, according to the Refugee Processing Center, which is operated by the U.S. State Department.
There are 25.9 million refugees worldwide, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the highest level of displacement on record.
“Compared to the global problem, we’re not even doing a drop in the bucket anymore” by resettling up to the 30,000 cap the administration set for this fiscal year, Plummer said.
CRIS is slated to resettle 248 people in this fiscal year; Plummer had expected the number to be closer to 300.
US Together, the other resettlement agency in Columbus, has resettled 158 in this fiscal year, according to Nadia Kasvin, its director and co-founder.
Plummer and other advocates reflected on the good they say resettlement has done in the local community, the nation and the world. Columbus is home to thousands of refugees and the second-largest population of Somalis in the country, about 45,000.
“Refugees and immigrants are important to who we are as a city,” Columbus City Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown said at the press conference. “They are a part and parcel of this community.”
Refugees contribute $1.6 billion to Columbus’ economy each year, Kasvin said at the press conference. Nearly 900 businesses and 21,000 jobs in Columbus are created by refugees, she said.
With the cuts, local businesses that rely on employing refugees are struggling, Plummer said. Companies call CRIS every week looking for people to hire.
“There’s so much missed opportunity in so many ways,” she said. “We need population here.”