On "Forbes Newsroom," Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge, discussed the Trump Administration's executive order halting funding for refugee resettlement agencies, and what her organization is doing to help refugees amidst a hardline push to block government help with funding and relocation efforts.
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NewsTranscript
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.