EXECUTIVE ORDERS PROJECT: IMMIGRATION - 'Now We Can’t Do the Work That We’re Passionate About'
The Trump Administration has slammed the door on a highly successful refugee resettlement program. The impact in Fredericksburg has been swift and painful for all parties.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Suraya Qaderi is glad to be home — even if home is more than 6,000 miles from her native Afghanistan.
She came of age during a time when the U.S. military had pushed the Taliban from power, and women began to realize opportunities that had for too long been denied them. Qaderi wanted to pursue a career in law and eventually become a judge.
“Unfortunately,” she told the Advance through an interpreter, “after the fall of the government in Afghanistan, everything was completely changed for women.”
Under the Taliban, she lost her father. “I lost my dad during the period of the Taliban regime — we don’t know if he’s alive,” she said. She tried to continue with her education and to work, but that became increasingly difficult.
Her own life, and the life of her mother, were also in jeopardy.
It took four years for Qaderi to learn that her paperwork was processed and that she could move from the unsafe conditions in Afghanistan to a relatively safer place in Pakistan. To get there, however, she had to move with an escort, as women are not allowed to travel alone in Afghanistan. Her brother aided her getting to Pakistan.
Months later, she finally was moved to Qatar, and then to the United States, where her sister lives. She landed here on January 23, 2025, with hopes of bringing her mother here as well.
On January 24, however, the Trump Administration shut the door on the program that had allowed Qaderi to seek refuge in the United States.
“My mom is in Afghanistan,” she said through an interpreter, “and I want her to come” to the U.S. so she can join Qaderi and my sister, who is already living here. “We want our mom to at least stay in a safe country and not face any more challenges. I thought I would have this opportunity to bring my mom later. Now I don’t think so, and this is very hard for me.”
A Proven System
The United States has long been a leader in resettling refugees, mostly people who face persecution in their native countries. The federal program that oversees this resettlement — the United States Refugee Admissions Program, or USRAP — launched in 1980 and sets annual caps on the number of people who can be admitted.
Until 2016, USRAP’s cap was never lower than about 65,000 people. Under the first Trump administration, that number dropped to a low of about 11,000 in 2021. During the Biden Administration, that number rose to just over 125,000 refugees, equaling numbers established during George H.W. Bush’s administration.
Nationally, there are 10 agencies that handle resettlement. Most of these are faith-based organizations.
In the Fredericksburg region, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington Migration and Refugee Services (MRS), handles resettlement. (The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is the liaison for the Refugee Resettlement program and administers the contract with the State Department. Catholic Charities MRS serves as a subcontractor.)
Catholic Charities has been doing resettlement work in our region for more than two decades; over the past two years, it’s helped to resettle some 850-900 individuals.
The agency works with a number of different types of refugees. Because the world of refugees can be a confusing stew of acronyms and processes that are difficult to navigate, there is often misunderstanding about the kinds of people that Fredericksburg’s MRS office serves.
Many of the individuals who come through the MRS office in Fredericksburg hold Special Immigrant Visa status. According to Jessica Estrada, who is director of newcomer services with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, these are individuals who aided U.S. forces in Afghanistan or Iraq, have gone through an extensive screening process with the State Department, and carry a letter of certification from a U.S. official.
Another group that the agency serves are those who arrived from Afghanistan with Humanitarian Parole status. These individuals left Afghanistan under emergency situations, such as the rapid evacuations that occurred in 2021 when the U.S. pulled out.
Whereas those with Special Immigrant Visa status are here in the U.S. and on track to gain a Green Card (lawful permanent residency), those who come with Humanitarian Parole status do not. Some individuals with Humanitarian Parole status are taking steps toward Special Immigrant Visa status, which they were unable to complete due to emergency situations in their native country. Others must pursue different paths to secure a Green Card to stay in the United States, such as applying for asylum.
The Northern Virginia area is a popular one for resettlement, and for that reason many of the people that come through MRS are individuals who have anchor families in the area or another tie to the region.
“Most the time,” says Estrada, “we are reunifying families.”
Those coming through MRS do so in two phases. The initial 90-day phase is focused on getting people resettled into their new country. This is called the Reception and Placement Program, and is funded with money from the State Department.
According to the State Department site, during the first 90 days, refugees will be taken “to their initial housing, which has basic furnishings, appliances, climate-appropriate clothing, and some food typical of the refugee’s culture. Shortly after arrival, refugees are helped to start their lives in the United States. This includes applying for a Social Security card, registering children in school, arranging medical appointments, and connecting refugees with necessary social or language services.”
Following that initial 90-day program, MRS will work with refugees for up to five years through a number of support programs it runs through its offices and in collaboration with Virginia’s Office of New Americans. All of these services are supplemented by the support of donors, volunteers, parishes and other community partnerships.
Among the programs available during the five-year window, according to Kathleen Renfroe, the Fredericksburg site supervisor for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington Migration and Refugee Services, are help with employment, guidance on managing America's health care systems, programs focused on getting youth enrolled in school and finding the academic supports they need to succeed, and assistance with cultural orientation so that families can integrate and find success in their new communities.
This is a “hugely successful program,” said Estrada.
Since its launch in 1980, USRAP has settled more than 3,000,000 people. And as Vox has noted, it’s the one program for immigrants that works particularly well and could serve as a model for addressing the ills that affect America’s otherwise broken immigration system.
It’s also under attack.
Rapid Deceleration and Local Problems
Upon becoming president on January 20, 2025, Trump issued an Executive Order, “Realigning the United State Refugee Admission Program.” Four days later, the administration paused the flow of refugees into the United States under the program.
For MRS in Fredericksburg, the decision hit hard. The last arrival came to MRS on the 24th. However, “we had clients who were booked out for travel through the month of February,” said Estrada.
A second blow to the program came in February, when on the 27th the State Department “terminated … contracts with all of the national resettlement agencies,” said added.
A number of individuals in MRS’s caseload, however, still fell under the 90-day services that the government had already approved. Hence, funding to support those who had already come here was suddenly shut off.
“As an agency,” said Estrada, “we made a determination to continue those services for those clients without interruption.” And the organization would do so “even at the risk of not being reimbursed for those services.”
The cost is not inconsequential, as about 300 refugees were affected by the decision to cut funding.
“The resettlement has always been public/private,” said Estrada. “It was such a beautiful marriage of the two, and now we can’t do the work that we’re passionate about.”
As a result of the cuts to funding, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington had to lay off 16 employees who had been working on resettlement-related activities. Six of these employees have subsequently been hired back to serve in other areas of the organization.
Missional Work
Resettling refugees is trying work.
The people who come to our office, said Renfroe, didn’t come because “they wanted to leave their country.” They came because they had to. And “they’ve lost a sense of their identity, future, and careers.”
She notes that the people who are willing to undergo the level of disruption one experiences by resettling in another country are doing it not for themselves, but for their children.
And learning how to help the children adjust is particularly challenging.
No two stories are identical.
Renfroe says that the level of help needed for new refugee children depends on many factors—what tribe they come from, where in Afghanistan they lived, their age, the level of schooling they bring with them, and what type of schooling.
“Kids from educated families in Kabul tend to adjust a bit better,” Renfroe said, than those who are from provinces further afield from the Afghan capital.
“A majority of these youth,” she continued, “have experienced significant ups and downs and have huge gaps in their education.”
Since 2021, many of the families and children have been in refugee camps. “We don’t know what kinds of conditions that they endured in those camps,” Renfroe said, “and what kinds of education they may have received.”
Even beyond this is the trauma that people bring with them. Renfroe said that students have seen teachers lost, schools attacked, the hope of a better tomorrow as the Taliban went away, and then the fear that re-emerged with their return.
“It’s a real process,” she said, “for us to figure them out emotionally.”
She credits the local school systems in Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Fredericksburg for helping them deal with the challenges the younger arrivals face.
“The schools have been extremely creative and thoughtful in how to close those gaps,” Renfroe said.
Still, she said, “when you put all that together, it’s a real puzzle we have to figure out.”
Renfroe is committed to this work in large measure because of what she and her husband have personally experienced.
She’s been a Marine wife for 23 years, and her husband has been to Afghanistan on four separate tours. He’s also been to Iraq.
“He spoke about Afghanistan and its people in a different way from the other places that he had been,” Renfroe said. “He talked about the people, their needs, the tragedy of education, the beauty of culture. It was just really different.”
When the opportunity to help tutor Afghan students arose for Renfroe, she jumped at the chance.
One of her first experiences was tutoring a young man. When she came to his apartment, six of his sisters “came out of the doors.” Renfroe said that she “got to see their journeys from when they first came to the U.S. to five years later.”
She helped the students she was working with get a driver’s license. And she remembers introducing them to a Weber grill. “They were not impressed,” she said laughing.
The last two kids are going to be graduating from high school soon.
Renfroe can still recall how foreign the notion of democracy was to them, and how exciting the ability to vote was.
“I’ve been to too many funerals,” Renfroe said, “and my husband spent years in Afghanistan. I know my family has paid its dues for the freedom we enjoy.”
Now she lives to help these refugee kids find their dreams and hopes.
Hoping to Live Without Fear
Like Qaderi, Hogai Ibrahimkhil is hoping to start life anew in the U.S. A life free from the terror that too commonly confronts women in Kabhul.
When Kabul fell to the Taliban, Ibrahimkhil was a university student. She was in class when she got the news. “I went back home and stayed with my family inside my home for two months,” she told the Advance at Catholic Charities in Fredericksburg. Her family had reason to be fearful and to stay inside.
Ibrahimkhil’s father held a prominent government position, her sister was a journalist, and her mother had worked for an international aide organization. “That,” Ibrahimkhil told the Advance, “is why we were in a very difficult situation.”
Like Qaderi, Ibrahimkhil finally received permission to travel to Pakistan. She and her family traveled to Pakistan together, in secrecy.
Upon arrival in Pakistan, it was the little things that Ibrahimkhil valued the most.
“When we just arrived in Pakistan, we felt a little bit safe,” she said. “After two months [of living holed up in their house, afraid of what might happen if they stepped outside], it was our first time breathing the fresh air.”
That freedom, however, was short-lived.
The visa the family held was for a limited period. “We thought that the situation [in Afghanistan] would change and we could go home,” Ibrahimkhil said.
Unfortunately, that did not happen.
Her mother, father, and sister remain in Pakistan, where Ibrahimkhil said they are “like prisoners inside their house.” Being caught in Pakistan would likely mean removal to Afghanistan, where, Ibrahimkhil, says “they would in all likelihood be handed over to the Taliban.”
“I’m so worried about my mom and my family,” she said. The Pakistanis are “forcing Afghan people to go back home,” Ibrahimkhil said. “Because of my mom’s age and the time she worked with an aide organization, it’s a very difficult and dangerous time for her.”
Her mother is also sick, but is afraid to leave the house for fear of being deported.
Despite the hardships, both women are grateful for the opportunity to be here and are determined to make their way.
Qaderi and Ibrahimkhil are both deeply thankful to Catholic Charities for the help they’ve provided.
Qaderi said that “it’s really difficult for people coming to the U.S. because it’s a completely different country. If you don’t know people it’s hard.”
And both long to see the U.S. return to a policy of accepting refugees again, so that they can be reunited with their families.
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