Impact has left refugee aid groups locally and nationally in shock

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via Pentagon:  Troops evacuating Afghans after fall of Kabul

January 26, 2025 (San Diego) – Following an executive order issued by Donald Trump to suspend refugee resettlement,  the Trump administration has cancelled all flights for over 10,000 refugees already approved to resettle in the United States. According to Associated Press. This includes over 1,660 Afghans who helped America’s military as well as relatives of active-duty U.S. military personnel, Reuters reports.

The impacts hit hard in San Diego County, which in recent years has resettled more refugees from around the world than any other county in the U.S. including refugees from Africa, Asia, war-torn Middle-Eastern countries such as Iraq and Syria, Ukraine and other European nations, Haitian refugees fleeing natural disasters, and many more.

“This executive order is a step backwards for America,” the International Rescue Committee states on its website, urging the Trump administration to reverse the order. 

The Trump administration has taken down entirely the State Department's page on the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Child in Africa, where famine threatens millions of children with starvation, the U.N. announced this week.  Trump’s order, blocked by a judge, barred refugees from entering the U.S, including drought-stricken nations

March 16, 2017 (San Diego) – A federal judge in Hawaii has blocked implementation of President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, just hours before it was scheduled to take effect. In a scathing 43-page ruling, U.S.  District Judge Derrick K. Watson wrote that there is a strong likelihood that the case, filed by the State of Hawaii, would be successful in proving that the executive order violates the U.S. Constitution by discriminating based on religion. Read the ruling.

Order exempts nations where Trump has business ventures; protests erupt at airports nationwide

By Miriam Raftery, East County Magazine

Photo: A large crowd at JFK airport in New York is protesting the crackdown on refugees and immigrants tonight, where cab drivers have threatened to shut down airport traffic for an hour.  A smaller group of protestors has gathered at San Diego's Lindbergh Field airport,  CBS reports.

January 28, 2017 (San Diego)—An executive ordered signed Friday by President Donald Trump suspends admission of refugees from seven predominantly Muslim nations for at least 120 days pending “extreme vetting.”  Those nations are Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen, CNN reports. 

Despite banning refugees from Syria, Trump backed off his campaign pledge to establish a safe zone inside war-torn Syria for persecuted people.  

The order also puts a half million legal residents of the U.S. who are traveling overseas in limbo, unable to return home, and slashes in half the number of refugees the U.S. will admit this year from all countries.