Refugee groups scramble to expedite travel plans before Inauguration Day

Saynab Elmi had spent 11 years in an Ethiopian refugee camp, suffering from the separation of her family and the burden of the unknown. That came to an end on December 18, when she arrived at Logan Airport with her son, Hirsi.

“I hadn’t seen my daughter in long years. And I started to cry,” said Elmi, 65, as her daughter, Hayat Ahmed, interpreted.

Elmi and her son are among the many recent refugees coming to Massachusetts in a tremendous undertaking by local agencies to resettle as many people as possible before Inauguration Day.

That’s because the resettlement agencies are uncertain whether President-elect Donald Trump will make good on his promises to close the border and launch a massive deportation order on his first day in office. During his first term, Trump placed significant restrictions on the program and gutted funding.

“We expect the doors to refugee resettlement to close or at least temporarily pause on January 20th,” said Xan Weber, senior vice president at the International Institute of New England (IINE), a local refugee agency.

“We’re making a huge effort to try to get at least half of the people we’ve expected to travel for the year here by next Monday,” she said.

The group committed to resettling 308 people in Massachusetts before January 20 to the U.S. Department of State. As of Thursday, 188 had arrived as they worked to expedite travel. Flights for 15 individuals have been cancelled. At least 35 are set to come before Monday.

The group already has travel notifications for 40 arrivals after Inauguration Day, Weber said.

“We’re very concerned those individuals’ families — [who are] expecting their family members to travel — we’re just very worried we’re going to have to be the voice on the other line to call them and say, 'This program is shut down. That means your family is not going to be able to come,’” Weber said.

Other resettlement agencies decided to take on more cases before January 20.

“Our goal was basically, approximately 25 families. Some families may have four individuals, five individuals. We decided that number because our biggest challenge is, of course, housing in this area,” said Lino Covarrubias, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Metrowest.

Families can be placed in hotels until there’s permanent housing, in-law apartments, host families, and rental units. It depends on what is available in a tight housing market.

Refugees go through extensive background checks, security and medical clearances, often waiting years for their applications and languishing in limbo at camps.

Elmi, originally from Somalia, hadn’t seen her daughter, Ahmed, in a decade. Ahmed had applied for her entire family to come through the refugee reunification program. Now, her mother and sister have arrived — but the other siblings remain abroad, without clarity of when they can come to the U.S.

‘“I was scared when I heard Trump was coming back — and when they said, 'Alright, you can go to America,' I was like, 'God, thank you,”’ said Elmi.

Through the agency, refugees are allotted a total of $3,000 to cover administrative costs and their needs for the first three months, including housing. IINE estimates it needs to raise an additional 3,000 to 4,000 dollars per refugee to supplement those federal funds.

An IINE staffer, Saw John Bright, has family members who were initially set to arrive in December, but ended up stranded in a camp on the Thai-Burmese border.

“They got a green light from the U.S.— but I don’t know why they can’t travel at this moment. Maybe they don’t have a travel permit from Thai authorities,” he said. Bright is a political refugee from Burma.

Bright is worried they won’t be able to come, and that they will remain stuck in the camp.

“Right now back in our country, it’s more challenging. A lot of fighting, violence, all these bad things happening,” he said of the situation in Burma.

Resettlement agencies have received support from the state’s Office of Refugees and Immigrants, including on the matter of speeding up contracts.

“We have been working closely with our Resettlement partners to ensure that they have the tools, information, and resources we can provide to support refugees and immigrants in Massachusetts,” said spokesperson Olivia James in a statement. “For ORI, this includes intensifying communication and coordination and expediting contracts.”