Services for San Antonio refugees in limbo after foreign aid pause
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Hundreds of refugees who arrived in San Antonio within the last few months are scrambling to access resources that will help them navigate their new country after the Trump administration paused foreign aid.
Why it matters: Resettlement agencies help refugees find and pay for housing, receive workforce training, enroll children in school and more.
- They receive intensive case management services for up to 90 days after their arrival, Marisol Girela, senior director of refugee client services for San Antonio-based RAICES, tells Axios.
Catch up quick: On his first day in office, Trump suspended new refugee arrivals to the U.S. The plan is for Homeland Security to report back within 90 days on whether resuming refugee entries would "be in the interests" of America.
- Refugees, who have been forced to flee their countries over violence or instability, are deeply vetted and can wait years before they're allowed into the U.S.
- Separately on Friday, the State Department issued a sweeping freeze on foreign aid.
That freeze affects RAICES' ability to serve about 200 refugees already in San Antonio who are within the 90-day arrival window, Girela says.
- The organization is instead looking to assist them through other, less-intensive programs — services intended for people who have been here longer.
- RAICES aids refugees for up to five years after they arrive in San Antonio.
By the numbers: Between October 2023 and September 2024, RAICES resettled 631 people in San Antonio, Girela says — the highest number for the nonprofit since it began resettling refugees in 2017.
- From October 2024 through mid-January, RAICES resettled 325 refugees in San Antonio.
Caveat: Hundreds more recently arrived refugees in San Antonio are likely impacted by the freeze on foreign aid as there are several other organizations that resettle people, including Catholic Charities.
Zoom in: More than 9,300 immigrants in San Antonio were likely refugees in 2017, per the most recent San Antonio Welcoming Plan.
- Many refugees in San Antonio are from Afghanistan, Girela says. Others come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela, Honduras and Colombia.
- The city recently dubbed a stretch of Wurzbach Road on the Northwest Side a cultural heritage district. The area is home to many refugees from around the globe and features international markets and restaurants.
Zoom out: RAICES paused refugee arrivals on its own before Trump's inauguration in anticipation that the new president might suspend the program, Girela says.
- But the agency was expecting about 70 refugees in February who no longer have immediate plans to resettle in San Antonio.
The big picture: More than 2,600 refugees arrived across Texas in the last three months of 2024, per the Refugee Processing Center — more arrivals than in other U.S. states in that timeframe.
The bottom line: "When someone enters this process, your hope is just to find a safe place to live," Girela says. "So they continue to wait."