Many central Ohio refugees will see delays in their immigration process due to recent changes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Angie Plummer, director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS) in Columbus, said the changes have caused an "onslaught of confusion" for area immigrants.
"It's hard to tell them even what to expect other than to try to set appropriate expectations that there really could be a significant delay," Plummer told WOSU.
A Tuesday memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Citizen and Immigration Services put all asylum decisions on hold and paused existing benefits for immigrants from 19 countries listed on a June travel ban — including Somalia, Haiti and Afghanistan.
Homeland Security already froze permanent residence or "green card" applications and said it will "review and re-interview" refugees who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration.
"This is part of this sort of re-vetting concept, where the administration is retroactively going and reviewing people's applications and kind of halting their forward progress," Plummer said. "For what apparent reason? I don't know."
Plummer said she couldn't put an exact number on how many area refugees and immigrants will be impacted. She said CRIS settled about 1,000 immigrants in central Ohio in 2024. Those people likely have pending green card cases that have been put on hold.
Green cards come with benefits, like the ability to enroll in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP benefits, Plummer said. Immigrants also need permanent resident status to safely leave the U.S. to visit loved ones.
Plummer said she knows one local immigrant whose husband is in Canada.
"She can't go visit him and he can't come visit her. You know, they're so close but they've been apart for several years because of delays," Plummer said. "Now their hope is really impacted."
Plummer called the changes to the refugee process "terrible."
"I think it's a full on attack to people the administration finds undesirable," she said.
The federal memo references a recent attack on two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. An Afghan national is accused of killing one guard member from West Virginia and seriously wounding another on Nov. 26.
"The United States has seen what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people," the memo reads.
The memo goes on to say that U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services recognizes that the changes will delay pending applications, but that it is necessary because of "the agency's obligation to protect and preserve national security."
