Migrants navigate a changing landscape

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, March 26th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Up next, the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to immigration policies have migrants trying to keep up. WORLD’s Emma Eicher brings us the story.

EMMA EICHER: When Missy Berumen arrived on Monday morning at her store, a delivery man was holding a handwritten note that someone had taped to the door.

At first, the man didn’t want to show her what it said.

But then he handed it over.

MISSY BERUMEN: It says, “All illegal aliens, please leave Beechview. We have contacted ICE, Border Patrol.”

Missy didn’t feel fear, only sympathy for the person who wrote the note.

BERUMEN: I mean, it's just, I hope he gets better. You know, he must be going through some stuff.

A Mexican restaurant across the street received the same warning. And someone tacked the notes onto neighborhood houses too.

The Berumens decided to keep the doors of their grocery store—Las Palmas Carniceria—locked for the day, along with the rest of the block.

But the note had nothing to do with it.

On social media, influencers declared February 3rd to be the Day of No Immigrants around the country. Missy and many neighborhood business owners participated. They shut down to show what it would be like if immigrants didn’t have a role in the local economy.

BERUMEN: Las Palmas decided because we just want to support the immigrant community. Let them know we have their backs.

Missy isn’t an illegal immigrant. She’s not an immigrant at all. She does have hispanic heritage from Latin America but she was raised in Indianapolis.

Her community, though, is full of immigrants. And recently, she’s noticed her customers are a little more on edge.

BERUMEN: It’s high, anxiety is high.

Many Americans anticipated shake-ups in immigration policy after President Donald Trump took office. And, as promised, his administration immediately began overhauling the system in response to four years under former president Joe Biden, who allowed millions of illegal immigrants across the border.

His lenient policies also affected the United States Refugee Admissions Program, or USRAP.

Simon Hankinson is a Senior Research Fellow for immigration at the Heritage Foundation.

SIMON HANKINSON: What we’ve seen for the past four years has been a sort of system that utterly bypasses not only the USRAP, but also the legal immigration system. So it's been basically an experiment in what happens if you open the doors and kind of throw the rules out the window, what would be the worst case scenario? And I think we’ve found out.

But Trump’s breakneck pace in correcting border issues leaves consequences for those caught in the middle.

During his first days in office, Trump signed a number of executive orders beyond just immigration. He halted new refugee applications for 90 days. And temporarily ended federal funding for refugee resettlement agencies.

That meant families who had just come to the U.S. under refugee status were stuck.

Daniel Behrens works with refugees at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh.

DANIEL BEHRENS: The challenge for the families that are here now is … they can't go back. And that's part of the definition of a refugee, is that you're not able to go back to your home country because of threat of persecution. So they’re here, the door back is closed, but they’re not being cared for.

A few years ago, Behrens was a missionary at the southern Texas border. When he moved to Pittsburgh with his family, he started a volunteer program through the church to help refugees. They partnered with a local refugee resettlement agency—helping them find jobs and permanent housing. Then Trump’s stop work order took effect.

BEHRENS: We’re collaborating to just meet some of the immediate needs, particularly of families that are in temporary housing. There were a lot of families in hotels and Airbnbs, not at all set up to take care of their own situation yet.

Church volunteers helped fill the gap the resettlement agency left behind. But Behrens worries about future implications.

BEHRENS: I'm not naive to think that everyone in the refugee process is a, you know, wonderful Christian leader. But there are some, there are some. And I’m sad that these policy changes are not discriminating between those groups of people. We’re closing the door on brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted and need refuge.

In February, a federal court ordered the Trump administration to reinstate funding and refugee processing. But tens of thousands of refugees remain in limbo and it could take many months to reverse course.

Hankinson says Trump is redirecting funds and manpower to deporting millions of illegals. Deportations which should’ve happened years ago. And, as a result, it leaves USRAP on the chopping block.

HANKINSON: I would think there's not a lot of bandwidth left for the official refugee program, which is very sad, because that's probably where more of the actual genuine cases are.

Margaret Stock is an immigration law expert. She works with refugees in Alaska—including Ukrainians fleeing from their home country. Trump recently said he’s considering revoking their legal status.

MARGARET STOCK: ​​They're not being deported yet, but they're being told that, you know, they're not going to have any status, and they're not gonna be able to work. They’re basically being told that America no longer wants to welcome immigrants and they should go to another country that's more welcoming, and it's hard for them to figure out where they're supposed to go.

Hankinson says Trump’s decision has nothing to do with being anti-immigrant. Ukrainian immigrants were paroled in the country under Biden with a legal status only meant to last up to a year.

HANKINSON: You have legal immigrants, you have legal permanent residents, you have legal non immigrants, and then you have illegal immigrants of various categories. And what Trump is trying to do, and I think succeeding at, is to enforce the law and make sure that only people who are legally entitled to be here are here.

Behrens has seen firsthand how immigration has helped people start new lives. And he hopes to continue to give those who are already here lawfully a proper welcome to America.

BEHRENS: We have to see the real people in the middle of these changes. And changes are needed, the system is very broken. But I hope we can be wise in kind of discerning some of these differences, of different paths of being in the US and yeah, not be driven by fear in what we choose and what we support.

Missy Berumen hopes for the best too, and for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to do their job.

BERUMEN: I hope that they can find a way to make it easier to progress here, you know, to be a citizen, to be a part of the community.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Eicher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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