Refugee resettlement programs have been shedding staff across Texas in recent days.
Sixty-one employees were let go at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in Bexar County on February 18, according to the Texas Workforce Commission’s Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Notices (WARN) datasheet.
Additionally, 63 workers were let go from Catholic Charities of Dallas Refugee Resettlement Program on February 11. The day prior, around 120 employees were discharged from various Catholic Charities Archdiocese locations in Houston and Galveston, per the datasheet.
In each case, it appears the organizations gave their employees either no time or just a few days to prepare before the layoffs were finalized.
The layoffs at RAICES were attributed to President Donald Trump’s new administration.
“The stop-work orders and funding obstruction at the hands of the callous Trump administration decimated the refugee resettlement programs operated by RAICES and other agencies nationwide,” RAICES spokesman Faisal Al-Juburi told the Houston Chronicle.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic Charities Archdiocese locations offered similar statements.
“Due to the recent freeze in federal funding, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston made staffing adjustments that allow the agency to continue its mission in providing essential humanitarian services to individuals and families in need,” Betsy Ballard said, per the Chronicle. “Our commitment to our mission remains strong: to serve as people of faith helping people in need achieve self-sufficiency and live with dignity.”
Catholic Charities Dallas concurred and gave a similar explanation to NBC 5 DFW.
“Even though the programs have not been technically suspended or halted, the funding for them has been frozen,” said Catholic Charities Dallas CEO Dave Woodyard. “So it has essentially the same effect.”
The federal actions the organizations spoke about came from Trump just hours after he assumed office on January 20. Trump issued an executive order pausing refugee admissions through the Refugee Admissions Program for 90 days.
“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans,” per the order.
The administration subsequently gave a directive to halt legal service providers from working with unaccompanied illegal alien children.
While it is unclear what Trump will do when this order expires, other actions in recent days suggest the President is still seeking to end the involvement of the federal government in the resettlement of foreigners onto U.S. soil.
Trump issued another order stopping the subsidization of illegal immigration with American tax dollars on February 19, The Dallas Express reported.