00:00Hi, everyone. I'm Maggie McGrath, editor of Forbes Women. In January, the Trump administration
00:08issued an executive order halting funding for refugee resettlement agencies. In February,
00:15a Seattle judge blocked that action, but a legal battle remains and thousands of refugee
00:20families are being left in limbo. Joining us now to discuss this issue is Krish Omara
00:27Vignarajah. She is the president and CEO of Global Refuge, a national refugee resettlement
00:33organization. Krish, thank you so much for joining us.
00:38Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it, Maggie.
00:40So I gave a kind of brief timeline of what's been happening for refugee resettlement agencies
00:46in the U.S., but from your perspective as CEO of Global Refuge, how have the last few
00:51months been? What exactly is going on?
00:54Yeah, so every day has felt like triage. Part of it is just so much that has been impacted.
01:03So first, the new administration suspended the U.S. refugee admissions program, which
01:07suspended a longstanding legal immigration pathway. And what we saw was that the impact
01:13was immediate. So we're talking about Afghan allies who assisted U.S. troops during the
01:18war, Ukrainians displaced by Russia's invasion, Christians persecuted for their faith.
01:25Just to give you a few examples of the kinds of folks who were impacted. And for context,
01:31you know, there were about 10,000 refugees who were approved over a years-long extensive
01:38vetting process who had finally booked their tickets, but then their flights were immediately
01:44canceled because the program was suspended. And then just days later, the administration
01:49issued a stop work order, which essentially froze refugee resettlement services. You know,
01:55for us, that meant that we had 6,000 newly arrived individuals, families who could face
02:02extreme challenges like eviction, food insecurity as a result of some of these policy changes.
02:10And then, you know, just for some context, it's just a real shame because the U.S. refugee
02:15admissions program has really been the gold standard of bipartisan legal immigration pathways.
02:22We were really hopeful on day one when you heard from the Oval Office, you know, kind
02:26of an affirmation for legal immigration that these would have, you know, that these families
02:32would have been protected.
02:35So a lot has been halted by the federal government. What does that mean for your operations specifically?
02:41Have you had to pause your work or do you have funding from other sources that allows
02:45you to help families resettle and find jobs and otherwise lead better lives?
02:51Yeah, it's been a challenging time to lead global refuge because we are so strongly supported
02:59by the federal government. And that has been true under both Republican and Democratic
03:03administrations because we work with refugees, because we work with unaccompanied children.
03:09It means that the only way to serve those demographics is to partner with the Department
03:15of State and the Department of Health and Human Services. And that's what we've done
03:18for decades. So the last couple of months have been colored by making decisions on layoffs
03:26and furloughs. We are kind of the umbrella organization for local nonprofits all over
03:32the country. And for those tiny community-based organizations, you know, we've had to deal
03:40with massive layoffs. In one case, a nonprofit that just had to shutter as a result of some
03:48of the instability of the last several weeks.
03:50Wow. So not only is this affecting the refugee families that were planning on coming over,
03:57but you're seeing job losses, job losses, programs getting shut down on local levels.
04:03Yeah, and it's hard, you know, because these are kind of inflictions that have especially
04:10hit faith-based organizations. You've heard news not just about global refuge, but Catholic
04:16charities, you know, so many of the nonprofits, the resettlement organizations are faith-based,
04:23actually the majority of them are. And that's because so much of this work was done by congregations,
04:29churches, temples, synagogues, as the work began decades ago and then ultimately became
04:35a federal program.
04:38I hear you say local. And in this environment, I know part of the thesis for a lot of the
04:43cutting at the federal level is efficiency. And then there's some argument that some of
04:48these issues should not be American problems. And we could debate that in another segment.
04:54But what I'm wondering is, do you have global partners, folks in Europe or the Middle East
04:58or Africa who are kind of picking up this work and can help, I don't know, supplement
05:04your work because of the difficulties and the complications happening in the U.S. right
05:09now?
05:10Yeah. Unfortunately, no, because we are talking about refugee families who are here in the
05:16United States already. You know, understandably, other nations aren't going to fund programs
05:24here in the U.S. by contrast to some of the programs that they would fund in the global
05:28South. The U.S. has actually always been a global humanitarian leader when it comes to
05:33refugee resettlement because of the nature of the program. You know, when we talk about
05:37people coming the right way, this is really the gold standard. These are refugees who
05:42have gone to a refugee camp or they've crossed an international border. They are waiting
05:46in a third country to go through extreme vetting. And only when they've gone through those processes
05:52are they admitted to come to the U.S. Only 1 percent of refugees ever get resettled in
05:56their lifetime. And so when the U.S. has led on this program, other host nations in Europe,
06:02for example, Canada, have followed suit. And when we have stepped back, other countries
06:07have used this as an excuse. And so we're not just concerned about how the U.S. reacts,
06:13but how the global dynamics are impacted as well.
06:17Now, you mentioned some of these families have gone through or a lot of these families
06:21have gone through an extensive vetting process. They had their flight and then this news hits
06:26and then more news hits. What are you hearing from these families now and where exactly
06:32are they? Have they made it to the U.S. or the ones who were kind of in process? Are
06:35they stuck in that third country?
06:37Yeah. So there's two different populations that we're talking about. You know, for global
06:43refuge alone, we have 6,000 refugee individuals and families who are already here in the United
06:52States, meaning they are our neighbors. You know, their success is our success in terms
06:58of integrating them into our local communities. And then we have refugees who, you know, they
07:04may have sold all of their belongings. They may have given up temporary housing because
07:09we had promised to resettle them here in the United States. And for them, their flights
07:14got canceled. And so they are either stuck in a third country in a refugee camp. And
07:20it's incredibly difficult because for the clients that we serve, you know, we hear from
07:24them every day. They are worried, sick and for good reason. We have families who were
07:29days away from reuniting with loved ones who had already packed their bags. You know, they'd
07:34said their goodbyes only to be told that their flights to the U.S. had been canceled.
07:40We have families who have no idea how they're going to keep a roof over their head or get
07:44their children medical care. And I think that's the human toll that this is taking. You know,
07:51I think to the credit of so many of our case managers, they're doing everything they can.
07:55You know, we've looked to private resources to try to make up for the gap of what the
08:00federal government had promised and has now suspended. But how do you comfort someone
08:05when you don't have all those answers? That's the challenge that we're facing day to day.
08:10How do you comfort someone when you don't have answers? It's a great question. Has the
08:14private donor community stepped up? Is there hope that they will step up more? You know,
08:20you're speaking to a Forbes audience where a lot of entrepreneurs and philanthropists
08:23could be watching. What's your message to them?
08:27Yeah, I really appreciate that question, because I think it's important to understand that
08:31when it comes to immigration, it's not just the right thing to do. It's a smart thing
08:35to do. Whether you think about how we keep Medicare and Social Security afloat, the fact
08:41that nearly half of Fortune 500 companies have been founded by an immigrant or their
08:46child, the range of jobs that are unfilled. We know that immigrants have played such a
08:53critical part and are essential to the economic engine of our country. And so we hope that
08:59people understand that this is really not just a part of our history of being a nation
09:05of immigrants, but part of our future. You know, it has been amazing to see how individuals
09:10have seen the headlines of the last two months and asked the question of what they can do.
09:15And so certainly for those who want to support the work of Welcome, who understand how integral
09:21this is to our country's identity, we'd welcome people going to globalrefuge.org. You can
09:27learn more about how to get involved as a volunteer, maybe a donor, you know, be a part
09:32of our advocacy efforts.
09:35Now I want to go back to something you said about the program for Afghan refugees. And
09:40I think there might be two populations within this, because I've spoken to sources who are
09:44specifically concerned about Afghan girls who have gotten out of the country to receive
09:50education either here in the U.S. on special visas and special programs or just across
09:55the world and across the Middle East. And then you have adults who might be out because
09:59of work that they did for the U.S. government during the war. Let's start with that first
10:05group. Have you gotten involved on that or can you give a status report of where we are
10:09on specifically Afghan female students who might be out of the country but not know what
10:16happens next?
10:17Yeah, we are closely working with both the Afghan women, girls who came to the United
10:26States as part of the Afghan evacuation effort. You know, we actually hosted a roundtable
10:31when Angelina Jolie had visited one of our offices as part of her role as an ambassador.
10:40And you just hear these stories of women who had served as journalists, activists, artists,
10:46who really were building a brighter future for their country. And then, obviously, as
10:52the U.S. military mission withdrawal impacted them and their safety, you know, they sought
10:59haven here in the United States. You know, we're working with them to rebuild their lives
11:03here. It's amazing the entrepreneurial spirit they bring. You know, as you said, in terms
11:08of your audience, we actually through New American Lending, which is a microbusiness
11:12and personal lending arm, it's a subsidiary of Global Refuge, we've been able to actually
11:18help a number of Afghan women who had businesses that got impacted by the Taliban restart them
11:25here in the United States. But as you said, there are still a number of Afghan women and
11:30girls who are stuck in third countries who we need to keep our promise to because they
11:36worked alongside us during America's longest war, advancing our mission. And we made a
11:42commitment to provide them protection. And I think it's important that we keep our word.
11:47And for that second population, the gender agnostic population, because it wasn't just
11:51women helping the U.S. government, men too. What should the public know about where they
11:57stand? And also, it strikes me as a potentially bipartisan issue, a humanitarian issue. I
12:03mean, all of this is, but especially for forces that helped us during one of our conflicts.
12:08Is there any hope of compromise or movement on that front?
12:15There's certainly not as much movement as I'd like to see. When you think about the
12:19refugee applicants, we're talking about a universe of up to 200,000 Afghans who were
12:26told that they would be eligible for a settlement and who are now poised to languish abroad.
12:32And I think that's just such tragedy because, as you said, this is a program that has had
12:38bipartisan support. I think it's been amazing how national security champions have advocated
12:45alongside us. The reality is that the U.S., if we, God forbid, have to wage another 21st
12:52century war, we're going to need local assets. And people watch all across the globe when
12:58they see what the U.S. does in terms of our promise, whether we keep it or break it. And
13:05so I think that's where this isn't just a moral failure. It's a strategic one, too.
13:11And I think my hope is that if we can get out of the politics of some of these issues,
13:18we can realize that there is a bipartisan consensus and we need to figure out a pathway
13:25not to just provide a long-term legal protection for those who are here, but to also make sure
13:30that we complete our mission to those who are in third countries as well as in Afghanistan.
13:34Brish, we've covered a lot of ground. This is an expansive issue. And I'm wondering,
13:39is there something that you're seeing on a day-to-day basis that we the media are not
13:42talking about or that the general public doesn't fully understand about what is happening with
13:47refugee resettlement right now in 2025?
13:51I think there is obviously a lot of noise around immigration. You know, when you turn
13:55on the headlines, sometimes you think that we are a nation divided. I traveled to some
14:00of the reddest of red states and the bluest of blue states, and I actually see a consensus,
14:05which is we're a sovereign nation. We need to make sure that we can manage and secure
14:09our border just as we strengthen legal pathways. And I think if we tell our politicians that
14:15this is not a political hot potato, that we actually need to reform what I think is clearly
14:21a broken system, our country will be better for it. And so I just hope folks out there
14:26more about the issue, understand that this is not rocket science. We can fix the system.
14:32We don't have a policy problem. We have a political will issue. And that's where I think
14:36engaging the American public is going to be critical to our success going forward.
14:40We don't have a policy problem. We have a political will issue. I think that's a good
14:45distillation of a lot of what is going on. And leads me to my final question. What are
14:49the next few weeks or months looking like for you? What is your work going to focus
14:53on the legal limbo? We're in legal limbo. So what does that mean specifically for how
15:00you will operate?
15:01Yeah, so my hope is that Congress will get more engaged. You know, it's it's tough when
15:07you think about the fact that there was a Senate bill that had bipartisan support that
15:12was killed during the election season. Our hope is that, you know, there's enough courage
15:18on both sides of the aisle to come together and say, look, you know, there are significant
15:23parts of our programs that we can reform. We'll be working day in and day out in terms
15:28of that advocacy effort. But it's also going to be figuring out how we restart these programs
15:35that are legal pathways. We're going to be in utter chaos if we essentially close every
15:43single pathway that exists into the country. And we're going to be paying a premium in
15:48terms of our pocketbooks, if that's the case. And so we'll be trying to forge, you know,
15:54reasonable compromise. It exists. I just think that there needs to be more focus on that.
16:00And then I think just, you know, I'll be trying to work with my team, nonprofits all across
16:04the country to just make sure people understand the work that we do and why we do it. You
16:09know, no one's profiteering off this, that nonprofits have always been the backbone of
16:14how we provide social services. You know, I'm the daughter of two immigrants. I know
16:19that my daughter's lives will be easier because my parents' lives were hard. And to me, that's
16:25the American dream. I think so many of us can relate to that. And so I just I'll be
16:31fighting for us and what I think is such an American value.
16:35Well, we'll have to have you back as you continue this work. But in the meantime, Krish, thank
16:39you so much for joining us. We so appreciate your time and your insight.
16:42Thanks for the opportunity. Appreciate it.
Comments