(RNS) \u2014 <\/span>5.4 million people became refugees in 2025<\/span><\/a>. With the global total eclipsing more than 35 million refugees \u2014 not including the 69 million internally displaced persons \u2014 resettlement remains a vital lifeline for the most vulnerable communities.<\/span><\/p>\n For more than four decades, the U.S. has been on the front lines of that process. But in 2025, the U.S. only resettled 11,500 refugees, a sharp drop from <\/span>the more than 100,000<\/span><\/a> in 2024. In 2026, the number so far is less than 6,000 \u2014 all of them from South Africa. <\/span><\/p>\n As the U.S. welcomes individuals from all over the globe to celebrate the world\u2019s game, most refugees remain largely shut out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This Saturday (June 20) is World Refugee Day, celebrated by the U.N. since 2001. In light of ongoing changes to U.S. immigration and refugee policy, we asked faith-based resettlement organizations what communities of faith should know about current U.S. refugee policy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Matthew Soerens. (Photo courtesy of World Relief)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, a <\/span>bipartisan effort established<\/span><\/a> in the wake of the fall of Saigon, <\/span>has all but been gutted<\/span><\/a>. Some of the most vulnerable communities in the world are now barred from seeking entry into the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n But many Christians are not aware, said some of the major faith-based refugee resettlement agencies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe average person in the average church I go to has no idea that the refugee resettlement program has been shut down,\u201d Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy for World Relief, told Religion News Service.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The change in policy has meant these agencies have had to make major staffing and programming adjustments. Some of them have had to survive the termination of significant U.S. grant funding. <\/span>But more importantly, they say, the change has felt like an abandonment of these needy communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During the first Trump administration, the number of refugees admitted<\/a> to the U.S. was cut drastically, leading resettlement agencies to cut staff and reduce programs. Those programs were rebuilt during the Biden administration, only to be shut down again when Trump returned to office.\u00a0<\/p>\n In fiscal 2026 (which began Oct. 1, 2025),\u00a0the <\/span>vast majority of refugees who have been resettled are white Afrikaners<\/span><\/a>, a minority community from South Africa. Persecuted Christians and other religious minorities, who have historically been a priority for the USRAP \u2014 such as through the <\/span>Lautenberg Program<\/span><\/a> \u2014 are no longer given special consideration.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re unfortunately quite confident that zero Christian refugees from countries where Christians are known to face persecution will come to the United States as refugees this year, down from more than 29,000 two years ago,\u201d said Soerens.<\/span><\/p>\n Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greets Afrikaner refugees from South Africa, May 12, 2025, at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite the restrictions by the current administration, most Protestant pastors prefer a much wider net for refugee admissions. Only 18% of pastors <\/span>in a 2026 poll run by Lifeway<\/span><\/a> identified Afrikaners as a priority for refugee resettlement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, 70% of pastors identified those who have fled persecution and have family members already in the U.S. as a priority.\u00a0<\/span> Many of the individuals who come to the U.S. are hoping to chart a path for their families, said Matt Misterek, director of communications at Lutheran Community Services Northwest, one of the plaintiffs in an <\/span>ongoing case against the U.S. government\u2019s refugee restrictions<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen individuals come, they\u2019re often almost always here to put their front foot forward with the hope that in fact they\u2019re going to be able to reunite with their families in the United States,\u201d said Misterek.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Family reunification is considered a priority by Congress, especially uniting children with their families that are already stateside. Yet while exceptions to the ban are being made for South African refugees, the same is not true for these children.<\/p>\n One such child is a 9-year-old boy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He\u2019s been stuck alone in Burundi, even though his parents and siblings are already in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cThese actions are discriminatory, cruel and arbitrary,\u201d said Mevl\u00fcde Akay Alp, senior litigation attorney for IRAP and lead attorney in the case against the selective application of the refugee ban<\/a>. The boy\u2019s family is a new plaintiff in an amended complaint put forth by IRAP<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other policies <\/span>put in place by the Trump administration in November<\/span><\/a> have made reunification much more difficult. They included a <\/span>freeze on all asylum applications<\/span><\/a> and a pause on immigration applications for individuals from a list of 39 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n The result? Millions of people whose cases were in process were left in limbo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As of last week, a judge determined the policies were \u201carbitrary and capricious<\/a>\u201d and forced U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to restart processing applications. Milagro Sique is the CEO of Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, the primary plaintiff in the case that led to this ruling. She told RNS the ruling means folks can finally escape this limbo.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt gives them some clarity, so that (they) the petitioner can make a meaningful decision on their lives,\u201d Sique said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For many, however, the pause on refugee resettlement means there is still no pathway for their families to join them.<\/span><\/p>\n As part of a crackdown, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested some refugees<\/a> already legally in the country and detained them for questioning. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to pause<\/a> these detentions.<\/p>\n But refugees remain at risk of a \u201crevetting\u201d process, which could result in revocation of their permanent status. Leliz Bonilla Castro, left, and her sister Xochina Michelle Castro, refugees from Honduras, participate in an English class for refugees, April 11, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo\/Erik Verduzco)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For HIAS, the world\u2019s oldest refugee resettlement agency, restrictions on immigration are something it has weathered in the past, particularly in the 1920s<\/a>. But the refugee revetting process, which risks separating families who believe they have finally made it to safety, is unprecedented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the instances where there is a really fundamental attempt to transform the nature of immigration and refugee resettlement in the U.S. in ways that we haven\u2019t previously seen,\u201d said Noah Gottschalk, chief external relations officer at HIAS.<\/span><\/p>\n Gottschalk said the intention in revetting refugees \u2014 who already go through one of the most stringent vetting processes in the world \u2014 is to create a \u201cclimate of fear, a climate of confusion.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n For HIAS, caring for refugees is not altruism; it\u2019s an outgrowth of a deeply felt experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are motivated as we are, by our Jewish values, by the Jewish experience of being persecuted, of being discriminated against for who we are and what we believe,\u201d said Gottschalk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In June of 1939,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the St. Louis,<\/span><\/a> a ship carrying nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees from Germany, was refused entry into the U.S. Forced to return to Europe, 254 of its passengers were eventually murdered in the Holocaust. <\/span><\/p>\n For HIAS, remembering this tragedy is an inspiration to welcome refugees today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many people of faith have done that and more in the past two years. Synagogues, mosques and churches have all met the gap in her community, Sique said, even though DIIRI is not a faith-based organization itself.<\/span><\/p>\n Some church members have even gone to great lengths to assist refugees impacted by the recent policies, such as a pair of families who traveled from <\/span>Minnesota to Texas<\/span><\/a> to assist a refugee who had been detained and released without documentation. <\/span>For some detainees<\/span><\/a>, this is a <\/span>deadly experience<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Jewish communities across the country, likewise, have rallied in support of refugees, even in places <\/span>where such support has come at great cost<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the funding restrictions, many faith-based resettlement organizations have found new ways to support vulnerable communities.<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, the support faith communities can offer is not sufficient to meet the needs long term. This is why Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island has turned to fighting some of the restrictions in court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe U.S. refugee program has been devastated in recent years.\u00a0<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/webRNS-Matthew-Soerens-2018-277x369.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/webRNS-Afrikaner-Refugees1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFamilies have been separated, and more families are at risk of separation.
Some refugees already in the U.S. could be in jeopardy.<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/webRNS-Refugee-Resettlement1-051625.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCaring for refugees is a spiritual concern.
People of faith have stepped up.<\/h4>\n