Trump immigration order leaves Kentucky Refugee Ministries facing cutbacks or closure

• President Donald Trump suspended refugee resettlement programs.
• The related loss of federal funding creates an uncertain future for Kentucky Refugee Ministries.
• At least 105 refugees who were supposed to be resettled in Kentucky had their travel plans canceled.

An immigration non-profit that has worked in Kentucky for nearly four decades faces the possibility of reducing staff or even ceasing operations altogether.

Kentucky Refugee Ministries, which operates offices in Louisville, Lexington and Covington, said it may be unable to provide services if the executive order signed by President Donald Trump that suspended refugee resettlement programs remains in effect.

KRM receives 90% of its funding from federal grants, KRM spokesperson Alex Miniard told The Courier Journal.

“We’re having to really evaluate what we need to do in order to continue,” Miniard said. “A lot of offices across the country are already closing down fully or heavily reducing staff. And sadly, some of those options — it looks like that’s going to happen here at KRM.”

The news comes just days after the Kentucky Equal Justice Center in Lexington, a non-profit poverty law advocacy center that includes the Maxwell Street Clinic for immigration law, announced they would have to suspend operations because of financial constraints.

Community partners and more than 350 individual donors provided enough support for KEJC to remain open with reduced staff for at least six months, per its website.

“We’ve been around for 35 years now and provided services for about 40,000 people in that time,” Miniard said of KRM. “We have every intention of staying committed to that mission, but it’s coming down to we need a heavy amount of outside funding and community support, of donations, in order to ensure that those services and our staff and our organization are all preserved.”

On Jan. 20, the U.S. Department of State ordered the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants to stop all work for refugee resettlement, including suspending all refugee admission and assistance for those already in the country. Federal funding has been paused.

For decades, the federal refugee program — a legal form of migration to the U.S. — has helped those escaping natural disasters, torture, human trafficking, religious persecution and war with legal, social and health services.

Since the program was unanimously passed by Congress in 1980, it has safely resettled more than 3 million refugees, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

“Religious organizations shoulder the bulk of refugee resettlement work in the United States,” according to the Associated Press. “Out of the 10 federally funded national agencies that resettle refugees, seven are faith-based.”

Kentucky Refugee Ministries is approved to welcome refugees through the State Department. It provides services for refugees and asylum seekers from war-torn countries like Congo, or Cuba, following restored diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the island nation. It offers comprehensive services, starting with cultural orientation and employment and continuing to citizenship and naturalization.

The funding provides refugees further opportunities beyond being settled in the state, such as job readiness or resume-building workshops and even providing work items, such as uniforms or footwear.

According to KRM, Kentucky holds the largest Congolese population. Louisville is second, behind Miami, for the largest Cuban population.

Public data related to the American Community Survey, which offers a one- and five-year look at a community’s changing population, was removed from public-facing federal websites on Friday following directives from the Trump administration.

Amos Izerimana, the director of Louisville’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, is an immigrant who arrived in Louisville in 2007 from a refugee camp in Tanzania.

“Kentucky Refugee Ministries plays a crucial role in connecting with newcomers and ensuring they have the necessary tools, resources, and support to begin a new life in Louisville,” Izerimana said in a statement to The Courier Journal. “It is very important they have access to the funding they need to provide these services throughout our community.”

Trump’s suspension of the program also canceled the travel and family plans for thousands of refugees, some of whom had gone through a yearslong vetting process, including more than 1,6000 Afghans who assisted the U.S. in war efforts.

At least 105 refugees who were supposed to be resettled by KRM had their travel plans canceled, including a few Afghan refugees who were family members of those who assisted in the war efforts.

Of those refugees headed to Kentucky, Miniard said many were also medically vulnerable and had experienced lots of trauma because that’s where KRM specializes its support.

“What do you do?” she asked. “What do you tell these people?”

Kentucky also accepted a higher number of immigrant arrivals before January 2025 in anticipation of the program’s suspension, leaving those new to the state with potential access to fewer services.

“Those people who have initially arrived — the first 90 days, especially — they are in need of a very high level of support,” Miniard said. “Leaving those people even more vulnerable to homelessness, starvation or losing the home that they just got, that they waited years for safety to have — and then to take that away … That’s something that’s really hard for all of us and a lot of the community that supports us to reconcile with.”

Only two other affiliates are listed for Kentucky under the federal office for refugee resettlement: Catholic Charities of Louisville and the International Center of Kentucky, in Owensboro and Bowling Green.

Amber Duke, the executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said the state’s current infrastructure is unable to meet the need for immigrants.

“Thinking about these drastic pullbacks on services, it’s absolutely devastating,” Duke said. “Behind the numbers are clients and people and families who are depending on these services.”

If refugee resettlement agencies reliant on government grant funding were unable to provide services, those core services would have to be covered across different sectors — many of which also have limited funding, such as housing.

“It’s challenging during this time, especially for folks who have previously experienced this trauma,” Miniard said. “They think they’ve finally experienced safety and then they start to hear this kind of rhetoric … and they think, ‘Oh no. This is happening again. I’m not safe.’ Imagine what that does to trigger fear and anxiety? People are scared.”

Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative reporter. She can be reached at skuzydym@courier-journal.com.

Keely Doll is a communities reporter. Reach her at kdoll@courierjournal.com.