COLOMBIA, SC – A church volunteer stood at the door of an apartment, beckoning a Congolese family to see for the first time where they would live in America.
“Your new home!” exclaimed volunteer Dan Davidson as the couple and the woman’s brother entered their two-bedroom apartment in South Carolina’s capital, smiling tentatively at what came next.
Inside, church volunteers made quilts for the beds and prepared an orange and yellow plastic dump truck and other toys for the couple’s son. The family watched intently as a translator showed them the main features of the apartment: which button corresponded to which burner on the stove, how the garbage disposal and window blinds worked. They practiced operating the thermostat and checking the water in the shower.
“We are very happy to get this place,” Kaaskile Kashindi said through a translator.
Now 28, Kashindi was born in Congo and fled with her family at age 3 to a refugee camp in Tanzania, where she lived until this spring. That’s when he, his wife, son and brother-in-law moved to Columbia, a university city with 140,000 inhabitants.
“We are still young. We just need help now,” Kashindi said.
Scenes like this are becoming more common as the American refugee program, long a refuge for people fleeing violence around the world, recovers from years of cuts under Donald Trump’s administration. The Biden administration has been working to streamline the process of screening and placing people in America, while refugee resettlement agencies have opened new sites across the country.
If President Joe Biden reaches his goal of 125,000 refugees admitted this year, it would be the highest number of arrivals in more than three decades.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in a 2020 rematch with Biden this fall, has promised to bar refugees from Gaza and reinstate its Muslim ban if elected, while implementing “ideological screening” for all immigrants. Trump’s website highlights his first-term decision to temporarily suspend the refugee program.
While immigration – legal or otherwise – is a divisive issue in the campaign, many of those who help refugees settle in the United States say the growing number of refugees has generally been welcomed by communities and employers who need them. workers.
The word refugee is sometimes widely used to refer to anyone fleeing war or persecution. It is often confused with asylum seekers arriving directly at the US-Mexico border. People like the Congolese family are going through a different process, starting with an application abroad and thorough vetting that can take years.
They are typically referred to U.S. authorities by the U.N. refugee agency and then interviewed by U.S. immigration officials. There are background checks and medical exams.
The lucky few who are approved fly to cities across America to start new lives with the help of a nationwide network of resettlement agencies. They are eligible to become citizens eventually.
For decades, America led the world in admitting refugees in a program that enjoyed broad bipartisan support. Trump quickly cut the program. When he left office in January 2021, he had set a record target of 15,000 refugees admitted per year. But even that mark was not reached: just 11,814 refugees arrived in the US in Trump’s final year, compared with 84,994 at the end of the Obama administration.
Biden has said he would reestablish the U.S. as a haven for refugees. It took a while.
His administration is now admitting more refugees and has added about 150 new resettlement sites across the country, said Sarah Cross, deputy assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
To reach the target of 125,000 refugees admitted this year – the highest number since 1992 – the department has been increasing its processing abroad and making changes that streamline all controls to which refugees are subjected, while at the same time maintains rigorous screening, Cross said. He has hired more staff and is making more trips to interview potential refugees abroad.
In 2020, Carolinas Lutheran Services resettled approximately 40 refugees in Colombia. This year, the organization expects to welcome about 440 people, said Seth Hershberger, the nonprofit’s director of refugee resettlement and immigration. It opened new locations in Charleston, Greenville and Myrtle Beach.
“Sometimes it’s chaotic,” Hershberger said from the agency’s office, housed in a Lutheran church. “But with the support we’ve had… it’s been a really good journey.”
The office is packed with case managers, employment specialists, and other staff; some were once refugees. These staff and volunteers often meet arriving refugees, making sure a meal they recognize is waiting for them.
From there, it’s a whirlwind of medical appointments, registering with government offices, opening a bank account, enrolling children in school and, eventually, moving to permanent housing, like the Kashindi family’s apartment. They have classes in what’s called “survival English” — how to call 911 if someone is sick, for example, or remember your address so you can tell someone if you get lost.
In a recent class, five refugees sat at desks in a local church. At the end of the hallway, a volunteer watched his children so they could learn a new language.
The class focused on calendars and days of the week, interspersed with a little American culture.
“In America, the calendar is very important. … There are a lot of dates you need to know,” said teacher Sarah Lewis, such as children’s birthdays, doctor’s appointments and more.
Two students were sisters from Honduras who fled their homes and traveled to Mexico, where they lived for about a year until they learned they had been approved to come to South Carolina.
Leliz Bonilla Castro said she didn’t know much about Columbia when she arrived, but she liked the warm weather and welcoming people. She said the refugee program gave her and her three children a future.
“For those who want and have the opportunity to come (to this country), it is the best way to save their lives and have a better future for their children, who are the ones we think about most as parents,” she said. she said through a translator.
It wasn’t long ago that South Carolina was one of many Republican-leaning states that balked at efforts to bring in Syrian refugees.
Hershberger, head of resettlement for Lutheran Services, pointed to another event — the U.S. evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans from Kabul during the 2021 troop withdrawal — as a watershed moment. This led to an outpouring of Americans wanting to help.
“When they saw people clinging to planes and running for their lives, I think that really touched a lot of people,” he said.
The nonprofit also listens to employers eager for workers, Hershberger said.
One of them is Jordan Loewen, whose Columbia-based company cleans facilities or fleets like big garbage trucks. It’s “dirty, hard work,” he said.
During the pandemic, when it was difficult to find workers, someone suggested he hire refugees. Loewen tried and now refugees make up almost half his staff. He also recommends the resettlement program to other employers.
In addition to getting workers, he said, “It’s amazing to hear what these guys have done and the struggles they’ve faced in life to get to this point of being in America.”
Global Refuge, one of 10 national resettlement agencies that work with local networks like Colombia’s, is preparing for what Trump’s presidency could mean for its work.
“It’s a huge cloud. We feel like we may be approaching a precipice here,” said Megan Bracy, the organization’s resettlement director.
The State Department’s Cross said the focus is on the push to bring in more refugees and the national support that follows.
“It’s also a program that we see many Americans eager to continue,” she said.
