Migrants, refugees facing more Trump fallout
The cancellation of government-funded service to refugees already in the US and the possibility that children born to foreign parents in the US could become stateless are among the latest fallout from the Trump administration’s radical approach to immigration in the US.
The US government has abruptly halted services for refugees in the US, including Afghans, according to media reports.
The move has surprised agencies that provide critical settlement services to recent arrivals, including case worker support and housing, for which refugee families are eligible for their first three months in the US.
Meanwhile, advocates have warned President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship could leave some US-born children of asylum-seekers stateless.
The order limits citizenship to those born to at least one US citizen or permanent resident. It also denies automatic citizenship to children born to parents in the US legally but on temporary status.
The ending of services to refugees is set to affect tens of thousands of refugees, including Afghans who worked with US agencies during the 20-year war.
Advocates say the move will see refugees become homeless.
The Trump administration has also suspended refugee admissions. As a result, about 10,000 refugees who had flights booked after spending years gaining refugee status have had those flights cancelled.
Refugee settlement agencies receive funding from the US State Department, authorised by the US Congress for the purpose of aiding refugee arrivals.
The State Department has told the agencies that their work must end, reports say.
The agencies help refugees once they’ve been admitted to the US, introducing them to services, helping them get jobs and familiarising them with a new community.
The most critical support is often provided in the first three months, when refugees are eligible for multiple services that are federally funded.
It’s unclear what support refugees will have access to if the agencies’ work stops.
More than 30,000 refugees have arrived in the United States since October 1, the start of the US financial year, and would be within the three-month window receiving benefits and services.
At the same time, a legal case has been launched against the executive order to end the long-standing arrangement that gives anyone born in the US automatic citizenship.
A court in Seattle has temporarily blocked the order on constitutional grounds.
The issue is a complicated one, particularly for asylum-seekers from countries like Venezuela, which have no diplomatic ties with the US.
Without Venezuelan diplomatic offices in the US, parents may be unable to register their US-born children as Venezuelan citizens, effectively making them stateless, media reports have said.
But some reports say asylum-seekers may ultimately have a pathway to birthright citizenship.
Attorneys general in 23 Democrat-held states have also sued to block the order, which legal experts say the Supreme Court will ultimately reject, despite its conservative majority.
The move to remove automatic citizenship appears to challenge the 14th amendment to the US constitution, ratified in 1868, which guarantees citizenship to people “born or naturalised” in the United States.