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Assad looked exhausted as he spoke from his rented home in Concord, where he lives with his wife and three children, ages 9, 6 and 1.

The Afghan native has been in the United States just over a month and is trying to get his family settled in, he told J. over Zoom. The two older children just got vaccinated for school, and he’s taking English classes to polish his language skills before applying for a job.

Assad, 35, worked with the U.S. military and the Afghan military police for 10 years, from 2011 until the Taliban reoccupied Afghanistan in 2021. Facing death threats, he took his wife and children into the countryside, where they lived in hiding for three years waiting for permission to enter the United States under the Special Immigration Visa (SIV) program, offered mainly to Afghans and Iraqis who worked with the U.S. Armed Forces abroad.

On Dec. 19, the family finally arrived in California, where they are receiving support from Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay for their first 90 days, the waiting period before federal benefits kick in.

“They gave us furniture, kitchen supplies. They pay the rent on our home,” said Assad, who is using a pseudonym to protect his mother, sister and brother still in Afghanistan. “They gave me a little cash, and applied to Contra Costa County for food stamps. They give us a lot of help.”

On Jan. 20, however, that help was put in jeopardy when President Donald Trump, on his first day in office, began signing a flurry of executive orders targeting not only illegal immigration, but legal immigration as well. One of the executive orders closed the borders to new refugees, stranding thousands of people who have already been vetted and approved for visas to the United States.

In limbo

These hopeful refugees are now in limbo, either in temporary housing outside their home countries, or in hiding.

Federal programs that deliver benefits to refugees once they make it to the U.S. also came under attack via executive order. A freeze on federal grants and loans, which threatened foreign and domestic aid to refugees, has since been rescinded, but chaos and confusion reign throughout governmental agencies.

Aid workers don’t know what future restrictions will be imposed, which funding will continue and which will be held up. Federal employees have been offered buyouts in anticipation of big layoffs. USAID, the nation’s main funnel for humanitarian aid to refugees abroad, has virtually stopped functioning, cutting back on everything but the most extreme emergency services.

It’s the complete halt of legal immigrants coming into the United States.

Susan Frazer, JFS Silicon Valley

As of press time, a search for “refugee admissions” on the U.S. State Department website led to a blank page.

“Jewish Family told us that even though the government stopped everything, we will help you as much as we can,” Assad told J., referring to a conversation he had with his liaison at JFCS East Bay.

“It’s very difficult for us,” he continued. “When a person comes to a new country, it’s a completely new environment. We need support to get a job, enroll our children in school, buy a car. We need government support to build new lives in the United States. We ask the government please to reopen refugee resettlement help to help us meet this challenge.”

Blindsided on Jan. 20

Staffers at Jewish refugee aid agencies interviewed by J. said they had expected the new president to take action against undocumented immigrants. During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to “close our borders” and said he would begin mass deportations on his first day in office.

But leaders of two major Jewish agencies that help refugees in the Bay Area — JFCS East Bay and Jewish Family Services Silicon Valley — said they were blindsided by the president’s targeting of refugees who have been approved for entry, as well as immigrants who came to the country legally.

“Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” an executive order Trump signed Jan. 20, halted admission of all refugees while the administration reviews the program every 90 days to see whether its resumption aligns with the “national interest.”

The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has brought in more than 3 million people since 1980 when it was created by Congress to help those facing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion.

The pause includes the “humanitarian parole” program used by Ukrainians, Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and other refugees fleeing oppression and violence. It also affects the SIV program.

“We have not experienced this in the United States at this level ever,” said Susan Frazer, CEO of JFS Silicon Valley. “It’s the complete halt of legal immigrants coming into the United States.”

Between them, the two agencies have provided services to more than 3,000 refugees in the past several years. JFCS East Bay has supported 2,000 Afghans.

The East Bay agency has 33 active cases of recently arrived refugees, involving some 100 individuals, more than half of them Afghans. It also has 22 cases on its waitlist, involving some four dozen Afghans.

JFS Silicon Valley has 116 active cases of recently arrived refugees, almost all from Afghanistan and Iran, the latter fleeing religious persecution. It also has 270 mostly Iranian refugees on its waitlist. The South Bay agency has welcomed 50 already this year, including an 89-year-old Iranian Jewish man who arrived in mid-January, just days before Trump shut the borders.

‘Lives are at risk’

“We have refugees whose lives are at risk,” Frazer said, pointing in particular to Afghans who have been languishing in refugee camps in Pakistan, waiting for their promised visas. “They’ve been approved to come into the United States and now they’re denied access,” she said. “Some of them are hiding in Pakistan because the camps were closed. So they have nowhere to go.”

Robin Mencher, CEO of JFCS East Bay, said the Afghans her agency was expecting to come “had their flight tickets in hand, and they were just canceled.”

Some have family members already in the East Bay. In one case, she said, parents who have been waiting for their children to join them received word that the minors have been denied permission to enter the country.

Mencher said that those working in the field believed the SIV program would be left untouched, as it was in the first Trump administration.

“We were all surprised,” she said.

Also unknown is what will happen to refugees already in this country. Most at risk, said Frazer, are recent arrivals who have not been here for 90 days. That’s when they become eligible for federal and state help; until then, they are completely dependent on support from the refugee aid organizations. Moreover, the lion’s share of each agency’s budget comes from federal grants, Frazer and Mencher told J. If the grants disappear, it will severely curtail the help they can provide.

‘Feels very cruel’

“For an organization founded on being able to support refugees, a core component of our Jewish values, to be told that not only are we not going to be able to welcome new refugees, we don’t want you to support the ones that just arrived — that feels very cruel,” Frazer said.

San Francisco-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services has also been affected by the clampdown on immigration. It has settled thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union over the decades and has a robust emigre program, as well as many Russian-speaking employees and volunteers.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and refugees began pouring out of the war-torn country, JCFS was prepared to assist those arriving in the Bay Area with basic needs, legal advice, citizenship services, health care and more. The Ukrainians received expedited entry to the U.S. via the Uniting for Ukraine program, established by former President Joe Biden, which granted them humanitarian parole and temporary protected status for two years, with options for renewal.

That program, too, has been paused by Trump. But the needs continue, said attorney Brett Snider, director of legal services for S.F.-based JFCS.

“We’ve had dozens of new Ukrainian clients come to JFCS for services in the last year, and that demand is increasing,” he told J. by email. “The war in Ukraine is still ongoing, and even when it ends, in many cases families cannot return, as their homes and businesses have been completely destroyed.”

These three Bay Area Jewish refugee aid groups work in tandem with the national immigration agency HIAS, which provides services to “refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced and stateless persons.” HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, shepherds refugees into the United States and then transfers their cases to the local agencies for sustained support.

Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS, told J. on Jan. 31 that “this has been the longest week of our lives.”

Although his agency had been preparing for expected presidential actions since the November election, he said it’s “still shocking” that Trump shut down the entire refugee resettlement program. He said 19,300 refugees around the world had been approved to enter the United States in February but are now stranded.

“This is the quintessential legal immigration program,” Hetfield said. “It’s completely controlled. You can only apply for it if you fall into one of these narrow categories established by the U.S. government. And even then, you still have to undergo a Homeland Security interview, extensive security vetting, medical vetting, until you finally get approved to come to the United States. It’s very much controlled, legal immigration.”

“The Trump agenda is not just anti-undocumented immigrant, it’s anti-immigrant. It’s anti-refugee,” Hetfield added.

Fled danger

The government’s actions have created great fear in the refugee community, say those working in the field.

“It certainly doesn’t send a message that America is a safe place for them,” said Frazer, who on the day she spoke to J. said “far fewer” students showed up for the agency’s English-as-a-second-language classes “than we have seen in a long time.”

Snider concurred about the fear among refugees.

“These changes have caused significant anxiety for our clients, many of whom are already traumatized by the events that led them to seek refuge in the United States,” said Snider. “Clients with parole or temporary permanent status now face an uncertain future. They fear being forced to return to the dangerous situations they fled.”

JFCS East Bay has posted a “community resource hub” on its homepage to keep refugees and community members updated on policy changes and how it will affect them.

Mencher said her agency had been, in fact, set to expand the services it offers to refugees who have been living here for a while but still need help assimilating.

“We were poised to expand refugee employment services to really help people get onto career tracks and pathways for self-sufficiency, so they can thrive and contribute to our community,” she said. That included more ESL classes and mental health programs. All of that has been put on temporary hold, she said, while her agency focuses on beefing up local fundraising to help the newest arrivals still within their first 90-day period.

Synagogues step up

While the bulk of assistance is provided by local Jewish nonprofits and governmental agencies, Bay Area synagogues have been actively advocating for immigrants for many years. Unlike the agencies, however, synagogues do not limit their activities to helping only those with legal status.

On Feb. 14, S.F. Congregation Sha’ar Zahav will hold “Immigrant Shabbat: Welcoming the Stranger,” where experts will discuss laws and policies affecting both documented and undocumented immigrants. And on Feb. 23, Or Shalom Jewish Community, also in S.F., will offer “Welcoming the Immigrant,” a lecture exploring the Jewish concept of the ger, or “resident alien.”

On Feb. 28, S.F. Congregation Sherith Israel will host its seventh annual HIAS-sponsored Refugee Shabbat, part of a series of themed Shabbats exploring different aspects of social justice that its leadership sees as under threat.

Sherith Israel has been a sanctuary synagogue since 2018, one of about a dozen in the Bay Area, providing legal assistance to undocumented immigrants and connecting them to housing and social services.

Rabbi Jessica Graf, speaking to J. on Jan. 31, noted that 30 congregants joined her in court that morning to support an African woman who was about to be deported. The deportation was stayed, she said.

“We’ve done lots of work with undocumented immigrants through the interfaith network we’re part of,” she said. As a synagogue, Graf believes such action is required. She notes that “at least 20 percent” of her congregants are involved in this work in some way.

“We care because it’s central to the Jewish experience,” she said. “We are all immigrants, certainly in this country. Many of our families, including mine, have migrated around the world seeking safety. I feel so connected to our need to create a safe home for those in danger. It’s our story, the central story of the Jewish people.”

Hetfield said HIAS will fight both in court and in the public arena to get the immigration restrictions lifted.

“We have to make a lot of noise and make it clear that this is not acceptable,” he said. “They’re keeping families apart, especially families that followed the rules, applied for the program, expected to be reunited, and then all of a sudden, literally at the last minute, were told, you’re not coming.”

In anticipation of sharply reduced federal funding, HIAS and Bay Area refugee aid organizations are seeking financial support from the private sector.

Jewish organizations, meanwhile, are turning to the Jewish community with a fundraising plea.

“Most Jews in this country have family helped by HIAS, and we’re going to need the support of those Jews now because we’re not going to get support from the government anymore,” said Hetfield. “In fact, we are on their hit list.”