Wisconsin refugee arrivals are starting to pick up as Biden lifts refugee restrictions, COVID-19 pandemic wanes

Wisconsin refugee agencies expect to welcome more refugees into the state in the coming months and years, many likely from Myanmar, as President Joe Biden’s administration lifts restrictive policies on refugee admissions put in place under his predecessor.

It could take years, the agencies’ leaders say, to return to the levels of refugee admissions seen in Wisconsin and the rest of the country before Donald Trump became president.

“You have to be aware that the systems that were in place to normally assist refugees are not there right now. They’re just gearing up again,” said Alexander Durtka Jr., president and CEO of the International Institute of Wisconsin, one of the four agencies that resettles refugees in Wisconsin.

Refugee arrivals plummeted to historic lows during the Trump presidency, as he sharply curtailed the number of refugees allowed into the country, shifted resources away from refugee case processing, and put new vetting measures in place that slowed processing times for refugees, according to a report by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

Many refugee resettlement programs were forced to reduce staffing or even close. That included Catholic Charities in Milwaukee, which ended its refugee resettlement program in 2018.

From federal fiscal year 2016 to 2018, refugee arrivals fell from 1,691 in Wisconsin and 84,994 nationwide to 404 in the state and 22,491 nationwide, according to numbers from the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30.

In fiscal year 2020, Trump slashed the refugee cap to 18,000, the lowest level since the Refugee Act of 1980 was passed by Congress. During the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, the refugee cap averaged around 75,000, though refugee arrivals did not always meet that cap, especially in the two years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Biden recently raised the refugee cap to 62,500 for the fiscal year ending in September, though only after facing backlash from human rights advocates and Democrats in Congress for initially saying he would keep it at the 15,000 set by Trump before his term ended.

It will take 'years' before refugee arrival numbers rebound

Refugee resettlement officials do not expect the country will meet that 62,500 cap this year. Through May, only 3,250 refugees had been resettled in the country, four months before the end of the fiscal year, according to State Department figures.

Refugee arrivals were halted for part of last year and have been slowed because of the pandemic. But as the country begins to emerge from the pandemic, refugee arrivals are starting to pick up.

Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, one of the resettlement agencies, resettled 14 refugees in the first seven months of the fiscal year, said Mary Flynn, program manager. In June alone, the agency had resettled at least 18, she said. Flynn expected the agency would resettle a little over 100 people by the end of September.

Jewish Social Services of Madison, another resettlement agency, did not resettle any refugees in the first six months of this fiscal year, said Dawn Berney, executive director. But since April, they have received 21 refugees and could resettle as many as 70 by the end of September, Berney said Friday.

Even without factoring in the pandemic, it will take time for refugee resettlement groups — as well as federal agencies that process refugee applications — to rebuild capacity to receive refugees in the numbers they did before.

"It will take a few years. This is not going to happen overnight," said Bojana Zoric Martinez, Wisconsin state refugee coordinator.

During Trump's presidency, both Durtka and Flynn estimated their refugee arrivals were cut to a third of what they had been during the Obama administration.

Because funding for resettlement agencies is linked to the number of refugees served, a smaller number of refugees entering the state does not mean more resources per individual or more time for resettlement officials to work with refugees.

Refugee resettlement agencies help refugees with securing housing and employment, enrolling children in school, arranging doctors' appointments, applying for Social Security cards, learning English and things like how to ride the bus and more.

Zoric Martinez said it was difficult for agencies to maintain some programming and staffing. She said agencies would sometimes share services with each other's clients, such as health literacy workshops on how to use medication properly.

"Leveraging each other’s resources and staffing and funding was how we got over it," she said.

Refugees from Myanmar will likely number high in Wisconsin totals

Historically, Wisconsin has welcomed tens of thousands of Hmong refugees from Laos, who were recruited by the CIA during the Vietnam War as part of a covert operation to fight Communist forces, help downed U.S. pilots and disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines in neighboring Laos.

Milwaukee is believed to be home to one of the biggest communities of Rohingya refugees in the U.S., a Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar that faced systemic repression and genocidal violence at the hands of that Southeast Asian country’s military. 

Most refugees entering Wisconsin are resettled in Milwaukee. Over the last decade, most have been from Myanmar, including people of the Karen and Chin ethnic groups.

Local refugee officials believe that trend will continue.

Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup Feb. 1 that resulted in widespread protests and a violent crackdown by the military. A State Department report to Congress in February acknowledged that the fallout could accelerate flight from the country.

Some refugees in Wisconsin have been waiting for years to be reunited with family members still abroad, said Flynn, of Lutheran Social Services.

"We have people that are separated by war, we have husbands that are forced to come before their wives and their children because ... maybe the husband was so critically threatened that he had to leave the family and run," she said.

Flynn has cases of refugees who were approved to come to the United States years ago but who are still waiting for their plane ticket to travel here.

Jewish Social Services, which only returned to resettling refugees in late 2016, had only resettled a few families when Trump issued an executive order putting a hold on new refugee arrivals.

In September 2015, Berney was getting phone call after phone call, asking what she was going to do about the Syrian refugee crisis.

The picture of a Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach following a failed sea crossing was ricocheting around the Internet, focusing the world’s attention on the millions of refugees desperate to escape Syria and find refuge from the still ongoing war there.

It was Berney’s first week on the job at Jewish Social Services. At first, she didn’t know how to respond to the calls to action. Her organization was thousands of miles away, in Wisconsin. The agency hadn’t worked with refugees for years.

"Then I thought about it some more," she said. "This fits in with our mission" of global healing.

'The need is enormous'

Leaders of the state’s refugee resettlement agencies say some of the biggest challenges to building up capacity for more refugees is finding housing and ensuring schooling and health services.

"We only have a limited amount of dollars, and what you're trying to do is look at the long-term stability of an individual, and so you want to make sure that they're put in safe, affordable housing," Durtka said. "It's trying to identify new landlords that might be willing to work with you."

Newly arriving refugees do not have employment yet or rental or credit histories, information that many landlords require of tenants, he said. For refugees with large families, it can be even harder.

On top of that, Berney said, refugee resettlement agencies are sometimes only given several days' notice of when a refugee family is due to arrive. That can put the agency in a pinch to find available and appropriate housing and to have it furnished by the time the family arrives.

Berney said she has to be creative to find housing for refugees in Madison, where it's generally more scarce and more expensive. She said landlords are more likely to respond to guarantees that a family's first four months of rent will be paid.

Zoric Martinez said she and others are working with the agencies to identify challenges or barriers that may come with sudden increases of refugees entering the state and how to prepare for them.

The agencies have started hiring more people to prepare for the influx in refugees, some of their officials said. They are also connecting with community organizations and religious groups to recruit more volunteers.

"Our 70 (expected refugees) coming to Madison is a huge help for the 70, and I'm so glad we can do it," said Berney, of Jewish Social Services. "But the need is enormous."

Sarah Volpenhein is a Report for America corps reporter who focuses on news of value to underserved communities for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at svolpenhei@gannett.com. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to this reporting effort at JSOnline.com/RFA.