“This funding freeze threatens 29 nonprofits across the state of Texas,” said the letter from Johnson and nine other lawmakers. “Twenty-four out of 29 impacted nonprofits have already had to furlough or lay off staff due to instability from the administration. Nearly 1000 nonprofit workers have lost their jobs, and thousands of refugees in Texas have lost access to services and support. If funding is not restored immediately, hundreds of thousands of refugees across the state could be permanently left without crucial medical services, basic shelter, and legal support.”
The money in question is provided by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and distributed by the Texas Office of Refugees (TXOR) to non-profits across the state. Seven affected nonprofits are located in Dallas, and three are in Fort Worth. The funds afford English-language lessons, job readiness and employment services and temporary cash and medical assistance for refugees post-arrival.
"This funding should have never been frozen in the first place,” said Johnson in a press release. “The Trump administration’s decision to withhold these critical resources created unnecessary chaos, putting nonprofits, workers, and countless refugees at risk. I’m relieved these funds have finally been released after highlighting this important issue, but let’s be clear—playing politics with people’s lives is unacceptable. We must ensure stability for the organizations doing this vital work and never allow illegal funding freezes to jeopardize basic human needs.”
According to the letter, the Department of Health and Human Services suspended funding to state agencies for refugee services in January. When the funding suspension was reversed, the Texas Office of Refugee Resettlement was the only state agency without access. The Office of Refugee Resettlement was unable to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
There isn’t a clear explanation for why Texas was excluded from the unfrozen funds, although Johnson has heard various theories.
“I'm not entirely certain why Texas was singled out,” she said. “I've heard two situations. One is just incompetence of the Trump administration, and the other is incompetence by our governor, who didn't request it… Either Gov. Abbott opted out of the program or didn't request the program funding, or the administration just screwed it up.”
Johnson and her colleagues received a flood of calls from different organizations that were facing closure if they didn’t regain access to federal funding, so they wrote the letter on March 13. Soon after, the money was made available.
“It was very gratifying to know that you can make a difference and move the needle in this environment,” she said. “I think a lot of people feel despair and helplessness that nothing can be done. But that's not true.”
Frozen, Then Unfrozen
Among the many executive orders issued on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term was an order to pause the federal government’s refugee program. In a separate executive order, which a federal judge immediately blocked, the president attempted to freeze all federal grants. The two orders doubly impacted refugee resource centers reliant on the money. Trump's second administration has featured a rapid rollout of extreme immigration policies, signaling a crackdown on refugees.
“[This is] another attempt by the Trump administration to harm immigrants and refugees and people seeking to make their home in this country for the first time,” Johnson said. “But once they're here, they all, for the most part, contribute immensely to our economy and to our culture and to the fabric of our community, especially in Dallas and Texas.”
Refugees are legal immigrants who apply for asylum and are often facing life-or-death situations in their home countries. said Lorenzo Pablo, the regional executive director for World Relief Texas, a local branch of a global humanitarian organization. In his experience, most refugees don’t want to leave their homes but are left with no other choice, and the acclimation process is an uphill battle.
“A lot of what we try to do is get them on a good pathway to make them feel welcomed as they come here, that they don't have to run for their lives anymore and truly get them settled,” he said.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, the United States has historically resettled more refugees than any other country annually.
“Our country made a promise to them that we would help them here,” said Johnson. “And the Trump administration, when they stopped this funding, was violating that promise. And I just don't think that's right.”
Dallas Non-Profit Struggled Without Funding
World Relief Texas is an organization impacted by the delay. The nonprofit's office has been assisting refugees with settling in North Texas since 1980. With the backing of its national office, the Dallas chapter was able to keep the doors open, but was forced to significantly reduce its staffing levels.“It was detrimental, the pause in the funding,” said Pablo. “Over 50%, probably closer to about 80%, of our funding comes from the designee with TXOR… We had to essentially rift some people or lay them off due to the funding. We weren't getting any funding in.”
Still having refugee clients to provide for despite the financial drought, the Dallas chapter cut its staff while trying to maintain all its programs. The organization began operating at a financial deficit, hoping the money would eventually come.
“We did have a skeleton crew to help out, but we were hopeful. We were prayerful for the funding to come in, so we continued moving forward,” Pablo said.
Since the federal money arrived, Pablo is considering reinstating some of the lost employees but says the future is still touch-and-go.
“When the funding got released a couple of weeks ago, it allowed us to kind of replenish the funding deficit that we had,” he said. “It's still kind of unstable. We don't know. There's a lot of different things that, again, we didn't know could happen.”
Pablo says he knew things would be different in 2025, he just wasn't sure to what extent that would be the case.
“From the previous Trump administration, we were anticipating some changes, significant changes to the resettlement program,” he said. “We just didn't expect it to be as quick as it was. And I don't think anybody was really prepared because we still had clients. We still had clients that [had] just arrived and that we were no longer able to serve. With our TXOR program being paused, we really didn't know how to continue and function.”
