DURHAM, N.C. — On President Donald Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order suspending the program that allows refugees into the country. The order not only impacts who can enter the country, but also cuts funding for programs that help refugees resettle, leaving many organizations scrambling for funding. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said more than 60,000 refugees entered the United States in 2023, more than double the amount from 2022.

“Refugees are persecuted people. They've been identified as persecuted people by the United Nations. The U.S. State Department invites a certain number of those people to come through a lawful pathway, a humanitarian pipeline that brings some of them to safety, here in the United States, so they can start their lives over,” said Adam Clark, executive director of World Relief Durham. 

Clark has been with World Relief Durham since 2015 but began his work in immigration close to 20 years ago after taking a deeper look at the Bible’s ideology of immigration. 

“The Bible is not easy to understand on many topics, but on immigration, it's very clear, that foreign-born folks, newcomers, strangers are supposed to be treated the way citizens are treated,” Clark said. 

Adam Clark packing baby kits for refugee families at World Relief Durham. (Spectrum News 1/Sydney McCoy)

World Relief Durham, is a nonpartisan, Christian, humanitarian organization, that uses funding from the community and federal programs to aid refugees that are escaping persecution. 

“We're serving folks who've helped the U.S. military overseas that wouldn't be safe to stay where they are from anymore because of helping us. Some of them are persecuted for their faith. In many cases, they've survived war or persecution or ethnic cleansing. A lot of the scary stuff that you see on the news,” Clark said. 

Clark gets many of his clients from the State Department and others who are Office of Refugee Resettlement eligible, providing a range of support from working with immigrant kids in the public school system, providing courses in different languages such as drivers education, sewing classes and mental health services. 

“We also provide immigration legal services to help people walk on their pathway to citizenship. Maybe get a green card or whatever is available to them based on the laws of our nation. And, you know, a lot of them could not otherwise afford that kind of representation,” Clark said. 

World Relief Durham serves about two dozen different nationalities every year, which may now be in jeopardy with the recent program funding cuts. 

Last week, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, ruled President Trump cannot nullify the law passed by Congress in 1980 which established the refugee program. In the meantime, many families seeking asylum have been separated with no date in sight on when to see each other again. 

Julleah Fink, the Community Education and Wellness Specialist at World Relief Durham, teaches many classes to refugees despite language barriers. She said with the halt, she is having to break tough news to families about their loved ones. 

“After we [a refugee mother] talked for a while and wrote this plan down, she asked me, when her husband could come, and I had to look her in the eyes and tell her I don't know when her husband can come,” Fink said. 

A refugee in one of her classes, who asked not to be identified for their safety, said they fear for the safety of their family overseas and that family members have bought plane tickets but have no set date to get on their flight to escape. 

Not only are families apart, the financial support refugees were expecting are also up in the air. 

“They basically went from having the support system that the State Department had committed to providing for them a couple months of rent, just to get them launched in their new community, to being at risk of homelessness,” Clark said.

To help close this funding gap, many community members including churches have stepped up to help these families. 

Adam Clark (left) with Senior Pastor of Temple Baptist Church Durham, Randy Carter (right) in a renovated parsonage for refugee families. (Spectrum News 1/ Sydney McCoy)

Randy Carter, the senior pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Durham and the welcome network director for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina is currently renovating a bathroom in a parsonage on property to prepare it for families in need. 

“We've been temporary housing partners with World Relief Durham, which usually means a couple of days or a couple of weeks, maybe up to 90 to 100 days at the length because of large-size families finding housing in the area. But if the number of refugees slows or even halts completely, then does temporary mean we need to help a family for six months or 12 months at a time?” Carter said. 

Carter said many churches in the area asking how they can step up to help the new residents of North Carolina.

“Local churches have had the opportunity to build relationships with refugees. And in the building of these relationships, they've discovered that living out what the scripture says is fulfilling and joyful and an opportunity again, to move from an issue to an actual family, an actual person, and get to know them,” Carter said.

Clark said despite the setbacks and pause of new refugees, the first Trump administration strengthened their long-term planning for their clients. 

“We're hoping that that's the case again. We will still be able to serve hundreds of families this year, regardless of whether that executive order allows for refugee arrivals to resume,” Clark said.

Clark said he has seen Christians in North Carolina who may not agree on other topics but have come together to support the refugees. 

Multiple agencies in the area who support refugees have had to make staff cuts and change funding plans since the order. 

“Agencies like World Relief, but also, many across the nation that work with refugees are asking the same question and are really being faced with the same, staffing challenges and shortages in funding. Across the whole network, there has had to be some changes that have been made,” Clark said.