NEW MILFORD, Conn. (AP) – Rogers Lopez knows how happy his family is as they settle into their furnished two-bedroom apartment in suburban Connecticut just before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Lopez, his wife Karina Cañizarez and their 5-year-old son Jesus are refugees from Venezuela and Colombia who were embraced by a team of supportive volunteers upon their arrival in December. Similar encounters took place nationwide as resettlement groups rushed to find homes for refugees in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration before Trump sharply limits, if not closes, this path to safety and citizenship.
“The refugee process is always very difficult,” said Lopez, 29, who said “political problems” forced him out of Venezuela. “But it will become more difficult in the future.”
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The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has benefited more than three million people since Congress created it in 1980 for refugees who feared persecution because of their race, religion, national origin, membership in a social group or political beliefs.
Trump, who imposed strict restrictions on refugees during his first term, has pledged to “suspend refugee resettlement” as part of a broader effort to “immediately end the migrant invasion of America.”
Presidents set goals and Biden increased them, citing “the generosity that has always been at the core of the American spirit,” and the billions of dollars refugees have contributed to the U.S. economy.
Nearly 30,000 refugees arrived in the last three months of 2024, bringing them close to Biden’s annual maximum of 125,000. Trump admitted about 11,000 in the final year of his first term, the fewest since the US began resettlements.
“People are desperate now to do the work because we have a pretty good idea that all immigration will stop, at least for a while, when he takes office,” said Michele Shackelford, president of the New Milford Refugee Resettlement group. Lopez and his family are helping.
Often lumped together with asylum seekers who come directly to the U.S.-Mexico border, these refugees face a much more rigorous process. If the U.N. refugee agency determines they are eligible, they will be interviewed by U.S. immigration officials and must pass a criminal background check and medical screening. It could take years.
Aware that Trump could close the doors almost immediately, Maria Mostajo, a former Manhattan district attorney, and Carolyn Setlow, a retired business executive, have worked frantically to settle families in Connecticut through a project they started in their small town founded Washington.
“If Trump comes in and either puts the kibosh on these entries or, as he has done in the past, reduces the number of people who can come in per year, then that basically means all these people in the pipeline, fewer and fewer people they will actually come in,” Mostajo said.
During the fall of the US-backed government in Afghanistan, Mostajo and Setlow held a community meeting, seeking volunteers and funds to help settle an Afghan family of six. Through various fundraising activities, including a GoFundMe campaign and a party donated by a local distillery, they raised $80,000, as well as donations of furniture and clothing, free legal help, English tutoring and other assistance.
She and Setlow realized that their Washington Resettlement Project could increase support for more refugees by providing grants of up to $10,000 to other volunteers. Since the election, they have awarded grants to the New Milford group and three others, with two more in the pipeline, Mostajo said.
Following Trump’s victory, global charities such as Church World Service urged volunteers in the US to quickly establish more private sponsorship groups as part of Welcome Corps, a US State Department initiative launched in 2023 to help teams of encouraging citizens to take responsibility for incoming refugees. Groups must raise a minimum of $2,425 per refugee to cover the first 90 days of living expenses.
Larger resettlement organizations provide the matches. For Connecticut, federal officials told Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services in New Haven to expect about 130 arrivals between late November and January. IRIS, which receives $2,375 per refugee from the State Department, has contacted about 50 community groups to resettle as many people as possible before Inauguration Day, according to Mohammad Daad Serweri, who manages sponsorship at IRIS.
In just two weeks, New Milford volunteers were able to find an apartment and fill it with food, toys and thrift store furniture. They hope that the Lopez-Cañizarez family will be integrated into the community, find work and be ready to fully take over their livelihood within a year.
The couple did not realize they would receive such help and never dreamed they would be able to live in a place where they would feel so safe.
“We had no idea,” Cañizarez said in Spanish. “This was great for us because these are excellent people… they took us in like we were family.”