David Duea said he and others serving refugees coming to the United States anticipated there would be a down-shift in admissions when President Donald Trump was elected in November to a second term.
He didn’t expect funding to be immediately cut off, putting refugees in a precarious situation along with the agencies that assist them.
“Everyone’s scrambling,” Duea said in a sit-down interview with The News Tribune on Feb. 21 from the nonprofit’s administrative offices.
Duea, CEO of Tacoma-based Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSNW), warned of costs not being covered and said he is trying to figure out how to close gaps with reserves and philanthropy.
When Trump temporarily paused admissions in 2017, according to Duea, humanitarian organizations were given wind-down time to continue serving clients already resettled in the United States. An executive order this January suspended funding for them, too, Duea said.
Trump’s order suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and federal funding to long-serving refugee organizations, citing “record levels” of migration over the past four years and the nation’s inability to effectively take in large numbers of migrants.
The order, which took effect Jan. 27, was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday in a hearing on a lawsuit against the Trump administration by Duea’s organization and others. The suit alleged that the program suspension was unlawful and abandoned thousands of refugees who recently resettled in America and thousands more in the pipeline.
The complaint, brought by two other refugee service providers and nine individual refugee plaintiffs, offered examples of people directly affected by the pause. A refugee family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, approved for resettlement, allegedly had their scheduled travel plans canceled even before the order had gone into effect. A woman in Boise applied to bring her daughter over from South Africa.
“‘Unethical’ is the softest word to use for this, and there’s no point to do it,” Duea told The News Tribune. “Congress has allocated these funds. These funds are there. Congress has the power of the purse.”
Forty-five years of law
The USRAP was established by Congress’ bipartisan passage of the Refugee Act of 1980 — a policy to guide refugee admissions. The United States has accepted more than 3 million refugees since then, peaking in 1990, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics updated in November.
Each year, the president determines overall admissions levels for the upcoming fiscal year under the program, which prioritizes people who are of special humanitarian concern and seeking protection from persecution due to factors such as race, religion or political opinion.
During Trump’s first administration, the cap on refugee admissions decreased each year, and new vetting and screening procedures contributed to the lowest levels of entries in U.S. history, according to the report.
Under President Joe Biden, the number again climbed, from 11,450 in 2021 to more than 60,000 in 2023, the report said, drawing closer to the annual average of admissions since 1990: roughly 65,000.
LCSNW, which its lawsuit said employs more than 700 workers in three states, made staffing changes after the election in preparation for what it thought would be a phased scaling-down of USRAP under Trump, Duea said.
Now, the agency faces significant layoffs and losing vital services, according to the suit.
On Tuesday, Justice Department attorney August Flentje argued in federal court that the program suspension was not unlike Trump just setting the number of admissions to zero. U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead acknowledged that the president held substantial discretion over admissions but said that the power was not unlimited.
Opponents of the program suspension, which the Trump administration pledged to review every 90 days, say that it illegally seeks to dismantle USRAP without congressional authorization.
What does LCSNW do?
LCSNW, which has provided a range of social and family services to low-income communities for decades, maintains 40-plus locations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. As an affiliate of Global Refuge, one of 10 national resettlement agencies, LCSNW also assists refugees in getting on their feet during their first three months upon arriving in the United States.
“We’ve got 90 days to really get them self-sufficient,” Duea said, noting that some need additional time and funding.
The federal government provides $3,000 per person for the 90-day period, according to LCSNW spokesperson Matt Misterek. The funds go toward housing such as rent and furniture, as well as clothing, food and more, he said. Some dollars pay wages, office space and other expenses of the agency, which also helps parents find work for themselves and schools for their children.
LCSNW resettled nearly 1,400 refugees in the Puget Sound and Portland-Vancouver metropolitan areas during federal fiscal year 2024, Misterek said.
Between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 20 this year, 54 refugees were resettled into Pierce County, he said. They included 17 people from Afghanistan, 15 from Ukraine, 10 from Pakistan, eight from Honduras, two from Moldova and two from Kyrgyzstan.
Applicants are vetted while overseas under the U.S.’s refugee-resettlement program. Duea said that LCSNW can learn in as short as a single-day’s notice that a person or family is arriving. The agency, often with volunteers, will pick up refugees from the airport — a flight that Duea said is covered by the U.S. government but must be repaid by the refugees.
When Trump’s executive order went into effect, refugees were across the spectrum of the 90-day timeline, meaning that some had just arrived and others had been in the country for longer.
It created a “dangerous” situation that threatened to push refugees into homelessness, according to Duea.
During the interview a few days before the executive order was temporarily blocked in court, Duea said that LCSNW was still working with all its clients despite not getting paid. He added that LCSNW also hadn’t received funds for December or January.
“Our donors are galvanized, but they can’t replace all those dollars,” he said.
Building the system back up won’t be easy, either, according to Duea.
Dispute over best interests
Trump’s executive order outlined concerns of increased migration into the country, saying it currently was detrimental to the U.S.’s interest.
Under the order, the secretaries of State and Homeland Security may jointly agree to admit refugees on a case-by-case basis, as long as doing so was determined to be in the national interest and didn’t threaten the country’s security or welfare.
“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,” the order said.
The significant influx of migrants weighed on both cities and small towns, according to the order, which cited states of emergencies declared in 2023 by New York and Massachusetts to address resource needs.
New York and Massachusetts were among 19 states, including Washington, that filed a brief in support of the lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s suspension of the refugee-resettlement program, court records show. Together, the 19 states admitted nearly 45% of all refugees who entered the United States during fiscal year 2024, the brief said.
Duea said that refugees added cultural vibrancy and benefited local economies. He cited a February 2024 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that found refugees and asylees contributed $123.8 billion more to the nation’s economy between 2005 and 2019 than they had cost in governmental expenses.
“America traditionally’s been the leader of welcoming refugees,” Duea said. “Obviously, not anymore.”
Following Tuesday’s ruling, Duea offered a statement, saying that he had been overwhelmed by the number of supporters who showed up to the hearing.
“Our lawsuit is a stand for justice and accountability,” he said. “The executive orders and stop-work orders aren’t just a breach of contract — they are a betrayal of trust for thousands of refugees. Today was the first step to restore that trust.”
