A 海角换妻 organization that helps refugees and other immigrants get established in the U.S. says it鈥檚 shutting down offices after the Trump administration ordered sudden cuts in federal funding. The organization has also laid off about half of its staff.
Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS, is closing its main office in New Haven and making plans to close its Hartford office.
鈥淲e're trying to stay ahead of what has been a tsunami of immigration policy changes, funding freezes, funding cuts, contracts being ripped up, with more to come,鈥� said Maggie Mitchell Salem, the group's executive director. 鈥淔or us to survive, we have to stay ahead of this.鈥�
As part of an effort to continue to support local refugees and immigrants, Mitchell Salem said the organization is pivoting to remote work and plans to offer some services at satellite locations donated by community partners.
鈥淲e know for certain that we need to be there to support clients and we have a team that wants to do that,鈥� Mitchell Salem said. 鈥淵ou know that saying 鈥榳here there's a will, there's a way?鈥� That's what's motivating me right now, and I think it's what's motivating all of us.鈥�
Mitchell Salem estimates IRIS has lost over $4 million in federal funding, well over one quarter of the funds the group was expecting to get this year.
Still, at the end of February, Mitchell Salem said IRIS was able to offer rental assistance to a family from Afghanistan approved to arrive on special immigrant visas and were able to pull together their own funding to fly to the U.S. in the wake of federal cuts to their travel loan.
IRIS has had to make significant staff cuts 鈥� a staff of over 100 full-time employees is now down to about 45. With federal aid cut for the arrival of new refugees, Mitchell Salem said the remaining full-time employees, as well as 20 part-time employees and temporary interpreters will still have a role to play to support immigrants as they learn English and seek job and career training.
鈥淲e're trying to be sure that we are there to address the challenges that our clients face and not just in the initial three months of arrival, when they need the most support, but for the years after,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t really takes people more than three months to adjust and thrive in their new communities.鈥�
The organization is grateful to state officials who helped offer emergency funding in the wake of the cuts, but Mitchell Salem stressed the federal government still has not reimbursed IRIS for its help resettling refugees who arrived in September.
鈥淎t this point, federal funding that's owed to us, we've written off. That's millions of dollars and that's not something that any nonprofit can afford to do,鈥� she said.
Innovative programs have already been forced to end, she said, including the Welcome Corps, which IRIS helped start in 海角换妻 and spread as a national model for individual volunteers to sponsor refugees.
IRIS continues to brace for an additional wave of changes to immigration policy under the Trump administration.
鈥淚t is likely that humanitarian parole, and those in humanitarian parole, which includes hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Afghans and Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, have already been impacted, and that their status could end next month,鈥� Mitchell Salem said. 鈥淭hat is connected to federal programs that we're also implementing. And so, you know, when I say 鈥榯sunami,鈥� that is in no means an exaggeration of the impact on us.鈥�
The office on Nicoll Street in New Haven is set to close on April 30, with services continuing there through the end of March. In the meantime, she said IRIS is focusing on its role as a community organization.
鈥淲hile right now it's feeling really tough, and it's especially hard on staff and on clients, our friends and the communities across the state of 海角换妻 have reached out and helped support us,鈥� Mitchell Salem said. 鈥淭hey're going to keep us going and we're just really thankful and grateful.鈥�
