FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 18, 2026
Contact: Jessica Andrews | our email | 480-658-4742
Baltimore, MD — One year after the Trump administration launched a sweeping effort to transform U.S. immigration policy, Global Refuge warns the United States government has moved methodically to shutter legal pathways, undermine longstanding humanitarian protections, and make it harder for children and families fleeing danger to find safety through orderly, lawful processes.
“What we have witnessed is a fundamental re-engineering of America’s immigration system in a manner wholly untethered to humanitarian purpose or legal coherence,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge. “With the dismantling of lawful pathways and protections, the administration has transformed immigration from a rules-based system into one defined by exclusion, retribution, and unpredictability.”
A coordinated dismantling of legal pathways
Since January 2025, the Trump administration has taken coordinated actions to narrow or dismantle nearly every major legal pathway relied upon by refugees and others seeking humanitarian protection.
Refugee resettlement had been suspended and subsequently reduced to historic lows, with the FY 2026 ceiling set at just 7,500 admissions, while previously admitted refugee families have been subjected to retroactive reviews that have plunged hundreds of thousands into uncertainty. At the same time, the administration has moved to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a dozen countries, threatening the stability of hundreds of thousands of people who have lived and worked lawfully in the United States for years.
Other lawful avenues have been similarly curtailed. The Department of Homeland Security has ended the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) humanitarian parole processes, putting an estimated 530,000 people at risk of detention and deportation. The administration also dramatically expanded travel bans in 2025, restricting entry from nearly 40 nationalities; and in January 2026, it moved to further restrict legal immigration by pausing immigrant visa processing for nationals of roughly 75 countries. Additionally, policy makers have advanced sweeping changes to asylum access, including ending the use of CBP One at ports of entry and imposing new barriers framed around security and public health.
Together, these actions represent a broad retreat from the legal and humanitarian frameworks that once underpinned the U.S. immigration system.
“Families fleeing war and persecution are seeking safety only to find a system that offers far more rejection than refuge,” said Vignarajah. “These are families who have already lost their homes, their communities, and their sense of security. They should not also have to lose faith in America as a beacon of hope.”
Vignarajah continued: “This period will be remembered less for any single policy than for the cumulative signal it has sent: that protection is fleeting, the rule of law is subject to political whim, and bedrock humanitarian commitments are negotiable.”
Human impact on communities and U.S. leadership
Global Refuge cautions that the collective effect of these policies is already being felt in communities across the country: fewer legally arriving refugees welcomed through structured resettlement; greater uncertainty for families who built lives here under TPS and parole; employers unable to recruit or retain valuable workers; and a growing backlog of humanitarian need as legal doors close.
“History will not look kindly on a year defined by dismantling lifesaving protections while displacement reaches record highs,” Vignarajah noted. “If we want a system that is secure, workable, and worthy of this country’s reputation as a global humanitarian leader, we should be expanding safe, lawful pathways, not extinguishing them.”
Global Refuge will continue working with communities, faith partners, service providers, and policymakers across the country to defend lawful pathways, uphold humanitarian protections, and ensure that the United States remains capable of responding to displacement with both integrity and compassion. As courts, Congress, and communities grapple with the consequences of the past year’s policies, the organization emphasizes that choices made now will shape not only the lives of displaced families, but the future credibility of the U.S. immigration system for years to come.
“The deepest harm of the past year is not merely who was turned away, but also how many families learned that the United States could not be trusted to protect them or their neighbors,” concluded Vignarajah. “It’s a painful lesson that will likely endure far longer than any single administration.”
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About Global Refuge:
Global Refuge, formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, is the largest faith-based nonprofit dedicated exclusively to serving refugee children and families. For 85 years, we have welcomed those seeking refuge, upholding a legacy of compassion and grace for people in crisis. We walk alongside individuals, families, and children as they begin their new lives in the United States through our work in refugee resettlement, economic empowerment and employment, and family unification for unaccompanied children. Since our founding in 1939, we have served over 800,000 people from around the globe.
