In the corner of our basement I had started collecting toys, car seats, books, and dishes for our new family. Our granddaughter had just outgrown the booster seat. We had more trucks than grandkids. I had an extra set of dishes.
Our small group of seven ordinary people could hardly contain our excitement. We were all in a PSG (private sponsor group), a small group of private citizens who work together to sponsor a family under the direction of Welcome Corps, an organization that helps volunteers sponsor refugees.
On January 7, after months of planning and preparing an application, we had been matched to a family from Afghanistan. We were told to be ready for flight information. Our hearts jumped and we sailed into “get ready” mode.
A mom and dad with four young children! We knew we had big challenges ahead of us. None of us could speak Dari. Housing for six might be hard to find. We needed lots of supplies. When we started talking, ideas came readily. We made connections. We knew people with apartments and beds and dishes. More and more people said they wanted to help.
As we talked, I imagined that mom and dad gathering their children in their camp in Pakistan. “It is time. We are going to Iowa. People there are getting ready for us. Soon we will have a plane flight.” Maybe a counselor told them a little bit about Iowa. Maybe she talked about Iowa weather or farms with pigs and cows. The children likely laughed and clapped. Maybe everyone was so excited they could hardly sleep.
This family had already gone through so much. To get refugee status, they had to prove living in their own country was unsafe. They had to fill out paperwork, meet with officials, and wait and wait some more to be vetted. They thought the hardest part was over. They had been approved and were ready to move, settle in Pella, Iowa, with their children, and find work.
We divided our tasks. Some of us worked on housing, others on paperwork, others on language help. We wanted to cover all the bases. “Just waiting on flight information,” our leader told us. “Who has the biggest vehicles for the family? Who should go to the airport? Who will make a sign?’
We met together on Friday, January 17. Our hearts were full.
On January 20, hours after he took office, our first sinking heart. President Trump signed an executive order called “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program.”
Its purpose was clear with these words: “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, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees. This order suspends the USRAP until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States” (The White House, 20 January 2025).
I cried, I struck out in anger, I railed at anyone who voted for Trump. And I thought about our young family, waiting in hope. I wondered who told the parents. I wondered how they told their young children. I imagined their tears, their heart-rending disappointment.
According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump said that continuing it (The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, in place since 1980) would burden communities that were not equipped to handle refugees.”
This program has brought in thousands of documented refugees. How could Trump say our community was not equipped? We were ready. We had already successfully settled another family, now working and living independently. We had supplies and plans and welcoming hearts.
We had a tiny bit of hope. Maybe our family already had flights. Then the next punch. On Tuesday, January 21, all refugee flights from Afghanistan were canceled. “This suspension is particularly devastating for the 10,000 to 15,000 Afghans who, according to #AfghanEvac, had been fully vetted and were preparing for flights”(New York Times).
New families like ours, family members with relatives in Afghanistan, individuals who helped the U.S. government — all waiting, all devastated, all wondering “When, if ever?” This suspension has nothing to do with the problem of illegal entry of migrants so why did President Trump feel this was necessary? The lack of compassion and empathy is overwhelming.
Doors were slammed shut everywhere.
- On Thursday, January 23, Trump ended the humanitarian parole program, not only stopping it, but also reevaluating anyone already here under that umbrella.
- On Friday night, January 24, Welcome Corps employees were laid off.
- On January 26, federal money to help refugees already here was withdrawn. Why? If it was considered “humanitarian” to grant these people entrance to the U.S., surely to send them back would be the height of inhumanity. How can NOT helping individuals already settled in the U.S. be good for anyone? President Trump also withdrew funds from agencies helping individuals who are already here. Agencies are scrambling to get help from other sources.
What now? I can’t stop thinking about our family. I want to keep collecting toys and books in hope. I can’t change their circumstances now. I can only pray for them and let anyone with influence in the government know how this feels and what this means. Refugees are not political pawns. They are young families with children wanting to be safe and make a fresh start.
Our group is reaching out to agencies sponsoring families. Perhaps Pella is a good fit for someone else. We are continuing our efforts to help refugees already settled in our community. And I will not forget our family — a mom and dad and four children we already loved.
Lord, have mercy.
Chain link fence photo by Min An on Pexels
Boys in refugee camp photo Ahmed Akacha on Pexels. Of course, not the family mentioned above.
21 Responses
Heartbreaking, Helen! Thank you for sharing. May people in positions to do something about this see it, and may the rest of us keep working for refugees in any way we can.
Thanks, Helen. Many of us are agonizing over our country’s new “character”.
So Pella, Iowa doesn’t have the resources to help migrants, but Guantanamo Bay, Cuba does?
Heartbreaking and at the same time infuriating.
Thank you , Helen
Our small house church sponsored a Ukrainian refugee two years ago through a similar program. God used it to teach us so much. Today he is working full time and contributing to our economy. He was able to sponsor his sister and mom, who had been living in a single room without heat, who now live with him. But the new orders may send them packing by April 1. It is heart breaking.
So sorry for your heartbreak and for the suffering of so many around the world. As I wrote in this space yesterday, Scripture calls on us to take extra care of the most vulnerable and though the U.S. today is not Ancient Israel and so we cannot neatly transfer its laws and strictures to today, the whole Bible calls for compassion and most certainly everything the OT said on these things was incarnated in the attitudes and love of Christ Jesus. America cannot see and will not help the vulnerable because we have to take care of ourselves only. For the richest and most powerful nation on earth, that insularity and ethnocentrism is scandalous. And heartbreaking to see.
Scandalous and vicious. Evil. Delighting in hurting people and causing misery and pain.
Yes, Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
There are no words for the atrocities this man has dumped on people with the stroke of his sharpie.
I hope I have permission to send this heartbreaking article to my congressmen and the our president. Notice lower case. Nevermind permission I’m sending it.
Thank you Helen for writing this and all you are doing.
Heartbreaking and so wrong that one man can have the power to do this to a family who was doing everything needed to start a new life. We can all pray that they will have the opportunity to be here in the future. Thanks for your article, Helen.
Hopefully everyone will think twice in the future before voting for an administration that allows uncontrolled influx of people from other countries.
Then we won’t have a massive problem that needs to be cleaned up, and your refugee programs can continue as normal.
There was no uncontrolled influx. Refugee resettlement is rigorously vetted by UN officials, and only a small number of those who apply are granted permission to travel to safety. And there was no “migrant invasion.” The Mexican border had become orderly and peaceful in 2024, thanks to the CPB-1 app and the humanitarian groups who met travelers without appointments. We brought them, at their request, to Border Patrol stations. Migrant crossing numbers were lower in the last years of the Biden presidency than in Trump’s. True, lots of drugs are smuggled across the border — 80% of them by Americans. The border crisis is nothing more than political theater based on lies and fear. But its “solution” is causing incalculable suffering on both sides of the border.
CORRECTION: We DIRECTED travelers to BP stations nearby, or phoned for pickup. Humanitarians have been threatened with arrest if they provide transport to anyone lacking documentation, even if it is only to reach a hospital because of serious injury. (In some cases: others report being told “you know it’s illegal to put this woman in your car, but we’re glad you did.”)
May we assume that the CHRISTIAN Nationalists, loved by the president, will step up and appeal to him to change this cruel policy?
In case they won’t, will the un-Nationalist Christians advance an en masse appeal?
Thanks, Helen, for stirring our conscience.
Heartbreaking. I broke out in goosebumps as I finished the last sentence. Thank you, Helen. Thank you.
Thank you, Helen, for making the harmful impact of one of Trump’s executive orders so personal. I’m in tears for this family and for all of you who were so well prepared. I urge you to send this piece to the President and many of the elected government officials who represent you. These kinds of personal stories are not mentioned enough in the national news. We need to push back. God have mercy.
Very heartbreaking Helen. I haven’t been actively involved in the refugee situation but I have written Congress, Senate, and Iowa Officials to take up the slack. Really haven’t seen any response. Look when the next issue of The Marion Express comes out. I did a letter to the editor.
Lord have mercy, indeed. Thank you for sharing this story.
Horrible! Please connect with Association for Public Justice in their work to raise opposition to this–and to the stopping of USAID to Christian organizations. World Vision’s website also offers ways and messages to get connect our sadness to action. May grief propel us to action…
I can’t help but thinking of my ancestors who were welcomed to this country a century ago. They had sponsors to help them. Those sponsors were following God’s greatest commandments. Trump needs to do the same thing.
Thank you Helen for writing what is difficult. The declarations since January 20 are heartbreaking.
Lord have mercy. May we see His hand as we continue to do what we can do.