We have been updating you on the refugee resettlement program since it abruptly changed on January 20, 2025.
Here’s a refresher on what’s been happening to the refugee resettlement program:
- On June 4, 2025 President Trump signed a proclamation halting almost all travel for individuals from twelve specific countries and significantly restricting the issuing of visas for individuals from seven additional countries.
At Arrive Ministries, more than half of the refugee arrivals in 2024 were men, women, and children who were forced to flee homelands included on this travel restriction list. We are grieved by this broad action restricting legal immigration, which will separate families, hinder international missions and development, and tarnish our country’s reputation for justice and fairness. Read our national office, World Relief’s statement regarding changes to travel restrictions. - On May 30, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the administration ending humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians, and Venezuelans. These are individuals lawfully in the United States for temporary protection, and unless they have been able to obtain another legal status, roughly 500,000 individuals could become vulnerable to deportation to countries facing humanitarian crises.
At Arrive Ministries, nearly 200 humanitarian parolees were referred to our office in 2024 for assistance with employment, education, immigration, and other programs. Read our national office, World Relief’s statement regarding changes to humanitarian parole. - On April 20, 2025, the first report regarding whether resumption of entry of refugees into the United States under the USRAP would be in the interests of the United States, ordered by President Trump, was due. We have now passed that pivotal date, and we still have not received news of a formal review of the program, and we grieve the lack of its reinstatement or efforts to create a new avenue for refugees around the world.
- On February 27, 2025, the U.S. State Department prematurely ended its review period and issued termination notices to all ten national resettlement agencies that operate as part of this 45-year bipartisan-supported program. We are devastated to learn this news.
- On February 25, 2025, a Federal judge granted a preliminary block to the ban of refugee resettlement (Pacito v. Trump). We are closely watching what happens with the existing federal cases and ask you to join us in praying that the U.S. can continue to be a place of refuge for persecuted people.
- On January 24, 2025, a funding suspension was issued, including funds for refugees who had already arrived and were still within their case management period.
- On January 20, 2025, an Executive Order paused new refugee arrivals, pending a 90-day review period.
- On October 1, 2024, Arrive Ministries signed a contract with the federal government to provide resettlement services for 550 refugees.
Despite the consecutive blows we have received over the past three months, Arrive Ministries’ mission will not change. We exist to see life transformation for refugees, immigrants, and the church.
We stand proud and thankful for the 12,108 men, women, and children we have welcomed with the love of Jesus since 1988. We will not stop advocating for refugee resettlement as an expression of God’s command to welcome the stranger.
