What's at stake:
President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders on immigration, aiming to end birthright citizenship, block access to an app used by hundreds of thousands of migrants, and suspend the refugee resettlement program.
Jemma Israelyan, who moved from Armenia to the U.S. nine years ago and is now a citizen, has opened her own daycare and volunteers with the Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries.
She provides translation services for Armenian families, having first connected with the organization while seeking help for her own loved ones.
Israelyan also helped connect her cousin, her cousin’s husband, and their three children to FIRM as they prepared to move from Armenia to Fresno since last year. They sold their home, car, and belongings to relocate under the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), a partnership between federal agencies and nonprofit organizations that identified and resettled qualified refugees in the U.S.
The family’s flight was scheduled for Feb. 4 to Fresno, but they received an email Jan. 22, two days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, from the International Organization for Migration’s Mission in Ukraine that said, “We have to inform you that your departure is cancelled. At the moment, we have no information about when your case will be ready to be sent. We will contact you as soon as we receive any news related to your departure.”
“I can’t believe it’s happening right now, but in my heart, I pray to God and hold on to that hope for their safety,” said Israelyan. “They called me, asking for answers, and I don’t know what to say. That’s the hardest part. It’s incredibly hard for refugees. Starting over in a new country is never easy.”
Israelyan’s family received the email five days before the USRAP program was temporarily suspended for 90 days, starting on Jan. 27. The suspension, enacted through an executive order by President Donald Trump, will remain in place until the administration determines that refugee entry aligns with U.S. interests.
The program is part of a series of executive orders signed by Trump that target immigrants’ rights in the U.S., including ending humanitarian parole programs, deploying U.S. Armed Forces to seal the borders, and an attempt to end birthright citizenship.
Trump’s immigration orders cause more confusion
Armida Mendoza, a Fresno immigration attorney, noted that her law firm has seen a surge in consultation requests since Jan. 20, citing “a lot of fear” surrounding Trump’s orders.
“Every consultation we do ends with, ‘can I have your number to call in case I’m ever picked up by immigration,’” said Mendoza. “Every person I speak to is fearful, not just for themselves, but for their loved ones as well.”
Mendoza emphasized the importance of staying informed, utilizing available resources, and proactively planning to reduce stress and uncertainty in the coming years.
This includes internalizing ‘Know Your Rights’ information, carrying red cards that outline constitutional protections, creating Family Preparedness Plans—particularly for families with children—to designate someone to care for minors remaining in the U.S., knowing local rapid response network phone numbers, and consulting an immigration attorney to understand individual options.
People should immediately see if they qualify for immigration relief, said Mendoza, “because it could be your safeguard in terms of what you’re eligible to apply for if you are detained.”
Immigration relief refers to legal protections or benefits that allow individuals to remain in the U.S. or avoid deportation. Common forms include deferred action programs like DACA, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for individuals from countries facing extraordinary crises, and U and T visas for victims of crimes or human trafficking.
Mendoza said while it’s important to see if one can qualify for immigration relief, it’s also important to understand how Trump’s executive orders can impact the availability of resources like for humanitarian programs.
Under the executive order titled “Securing Our Borders,” the parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans were terminated. The Biden-era program had previously allowed more than half a million nationals from these four countries to live and work in the U.S. for up to two years.
In the same executive order, Trump terminated all “categorical parole programs.” On Jan. 21, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the agency would “phase out any parole programs that are not in accordance with the law” to end “the broad abuse of humanitarian parole.”
Leaders at the Education and Leadership Foundation, which provides immigration services in Fresno, are working to understand the impact of Trump’s executive orders on their operations, particularly for individuals under humanitarian parole programs, the primary group the foundation serves.
Pricilla Ramos, project manager for advocacy and community organizing at the foundation, explained that people will be impacted by being forced to remain in places where they are subject to harm, or to stay in situations where they are fleeing conflict, war, or crimes committed against them.
The foundation is creating a plan to break down these orders, support those affected, and educate the community about their meaning. The goal is to disseminate information that empowers individuals to exercise their rights.
“There are some people who might not even have knowledge of any rights or services that might be available to them, so therefore they don’t take advantage of it,” said Indira Salaverri, public relations manager at the foundation. “We’re here to be able to offer those services for them.”
‘More at risk’
Last year, Israelyan’s family underwent the lengthy process of interviews, security screenings, and medical checkups to determine their eligibility to come to the U.S.
In December, they were told that they would receive tickets for a flight in January. However, the trip was delayed to February before they received an email halting the process altogether.
“They were excited that they were gonna come to a country where religiously, they are going to be free,” said Israelyan. “Since they sold their apartment and everything, they now live with her [cousin’s] sister-in-law in a small apartment, because they don’t have any other place to stay.”
Dalya Khadeer, coordinator of community engagement and volunteering for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program’s reception and placement department, explained that the process of applying, being accepted, and booking a flight to the U.S. varies depending on the application.
Khadeer, who also works at FIRM with newly arrived refugees fulfilling contractually-required core services during their first three months in the U.S., noted that some clients have waited up to 13 years for their turn to be resettled. Ultimately, Khadeer said, only 1% of all applicants are accepted for resettlement in the U.S.
“If we talk about stopping this process because we don’t know enough about the people we are resettling, this is not true,” said Khadeer. “These people are waiting forever because of those intensive steps of checking on every case, plus the limited ability of the resettlement program inside the United States to accept all the cases. The program was a beautiful solution for that.”
FIRM received a ‘stop work order’ for its refugee resettling program Friday afternoon from the U.S. State Department, ahead of Trump’s unprecedented freeze on federal funding. Trump’s immigration order impacted 130 refugees landing in Fresno.
Despite efforts to streamline the process, such as the CBP One app—which served as the sole method for requesting asylum and scheduling appointments at the U.S. border—Trump’s “Securing Our Borders” order also brought an end to its use.
Mendoza explained that entering the U.S. through the CBP One app was seen as following the proper procedures, allowing for a conversation with immigration authorities and offering more flexibility in immigration relief options, compared to those who simply presented themselves at the border.
“It’s going to put them more at risk of being victims of human trafficking, of different things, because they’re desperate for some sort of safety for themselves or their loved ones,” said Mendoza. “Trump is stripping away the opportunity through CBP One, of the humanitarian paroles, for people to be able to enter.”
At FIRM, Khadeer has participated in numerous meetings focused on navigating how to assist the limited number of open and active cases impacted by the resettlement program suspension.
“We are always there to help them, because a huge part of FIRM’s staff are refugees and we’ve been through this before,” said Khadeer. “I cannot see myself saying no to anyone who’s in need of any kind of help, especially the people that we were responsible to help through the resettlement process here. It must be changed, because this beautiful country is based on immigrants and refugees from the very beginning, and we cannot close the doors just like this.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the work conducted by FIRM and was updated to note its contractually-required work with newly-arrived immigrants. This story was also updated to note that FIRM (formally Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries) recently changed its name to Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries.
