Esther walked from the Panama Canal to the United States alone.
Her journey here started in her home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she took a boat to Brazil. From there she made her way to Panama and entered the U.S. 11 months ago as an asylum seeker.
The 42-year-old experienced solitude and trauma as a single woman, but she found joy in friends at the Iskashitaa Refugee Network.
“When I came here, I found people here,†Esther said. “I am happy.â€
Iskashitaa runs a , where refugees, asylum seekers and volunteers get together to garden and share their culture. On the first Wednesday of each month, a drum circle is the center of the program.
Esther led the drum circle for the first time this week.
People are also reading…
She sat at the head of the group in her yellow patterned dress, making songs while taking the place of an absent drum master.
Gouey Woldemichael harvests fresh vegetables during the weekly gardening program offered by Iskashitaa Refugee Network in Tucson. It offers refugees, asylum seekers and volunteers a chance to garden and share their culture.
Everyone laughed and followed along to her songs, singing “Is-ka-shit-aa†loudly with he drums.
The Pima County Health Department was there too, offering COVID-19 tests, smoking education and other health resources.
Volunteers pulled magdalena chard from the garden plots, stashing them in individual bags for Esther and the other refugees and asylum seekers to take home. They work as a “give and receive†organization, where everyone participates and reaps the benefits of the garden harvest.
For Esther and others, Iskashitaa is a lifeline for socialization and support.
But the group is overwhelmed and experiencing the effects of volatile federal refugee policy.
“People are not self-sufficient, and they come here because the agencies are shutting down,†said Susan Brown, a volunteer at Iskashitaa for 18 years. “So, it’s kind of, it’s a little bit of panic mode right now.â€
On Feb. 26, refugee resettlement organizations received “termination notices†from the Department of State, essentially canceling their funding agreements and partnership with the federal government.
This came 24 hours after a Seattle-based federal judge temporarily stopped the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, as ordered in .
In the written preliminary injunction order, Judge Jamal Whitehead, a Biden-appointee, said the Trump administration’s executive order against the admissions program “effectively nullifies a congressionally established program, causing irreparable ham to vulnerable individuals and organizations.â€
A sign at Iskashitaa Refugee Network in Tucson shows the different home countries of participants.
Nevertheless, the ten top national resettlement organizations were sent termination notices, including Episcopal Migration Ministries and Global Refuge, the parents of Lutheran Social Services Southwest in Tucson.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, said the termination of their contract is confounding because the bipartisan program impacts not only refugees, but American communities.
“Employers rely on refugee workers to fill critical labor shortages, oftentimes, where Americans won’t take these jobs,†Vignarajah said. “What we’re starting to hear is that they are worried about how they hire and retain employees, which could further disrupt local economies.â€
She said the contract terminations and previous stop-work orders could lead to “decimation of federal infrastructure†and harm the refugee families who have experienced persecution.
“Our case managers are doing everything they can, but how do you comfort someone when you don’t have answers,†she said.
As refugee resettlement organizations lose funding to provide for refugees, migrants depend on organizations like Iskashitaa. But it doesn’t have the funding or manpower for the influx of people coming their way, refugees and asylum-seekers.
“A lot more people are relying on us for things that we don’t necessarily have the resources to give them, we’re trying to find a way,†Brown said.
The resources they provide reach far past the gardening and music. They teach people basic social integration in America which can be vastly different from their homes.
They also teach soft skills like arriving on time, maintaining an apartment and navigating a new city, much like the resettlement groups.
But those specific groups funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement are only established to work with refugees, through the larger resettlement program.
Asylum seekers, who receive no government support, count on community groups to provide these services and educational opportunities.
Barbara Eiswerth, director of Iskashitaa, said some refugees she works with have spent their entire lives in refugee camps, over 20 years.
“Nobody ever wants to leave home, in this case, it’s life or death. That’s why they’re here, because they fear for their lives,†Eiswerth said.
She spoke about a refugee who, with his six kids, live in a Rwandan refugee camp for 25 years before coming to the U.S.
His kids spent their entire childhoods in the camp.
The process of becoming a refugee includes being temporarily placed outside of the home country and undergoing health screenings and other vetting processes. They all arrive via plane and historically received assistance through USRAP.
Asylum seekers are not vetted as thoroughly and receive no federal assistance.
Iskashitaa is primarily funded by donations and grants, but Eiswerth said they are not funded by the ORR.
Some their funding is from federal grants, so it is not clear what the future of that money will look like.
National resettlement organizations that work with the federal government through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program provide housing, shelter, and basic needs that newcomers need.
But the lack of funding and resumption of programing from national resettlement programs working with local efforts means there is a growing number of people who need Iskashitaa’s support.
“We don’t know how that’s going to play out, it’s just very uncertain,†Brown said.
Most USAID partners this month also received contract terminations.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declined the administration bid to freeze USAID funding after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali previously ordered the return of planned funding to partners.
Judge Ali, at a hearing on Thursday, gave the Trump administration until Monday to begin repayments to USAID businesses and non-profits involved in the lawsuit.
Similarly, plaintiffs in the initial U.S. Refugee Admissions Program lawsuit against the administration’s halt of funding, discussed the terminated contracts with Judge Whitehead in an emergency hearing Tuesday.
Whitehead requested a status report from the federal government by Monday as well, on the administrations progress in restarting refugee processing and reimbursing the refugee organization in the suit.
