On “day one,” President Donald Trump shut the door on legal immigration of well-vetted refugees into the United States.
While much of Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric focused on what he called “illegal” immigrants — people he uniformly equated with crime and disease — this Jan. 20 executive order goes much further and shuts down a part of the nation’s immigration system even evangelical leaders had begged him not to harm.
Last week, conservative leaders of prominent evangelical organizations — including the head of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission — sent Trump a letter urging him to set a refugee admissions ceiling of at least 50,000 people for the coming fiscal year, just as he had done during the first year of his previous term. The appeal asked Trump to consider Scripture passages supporting care for sojourners, the value of refugees to the U.S. economy, popular American support for the program and his recent campaign statements suggesting conditional openness to resettlement.
Instead, Trump took the most drastic action possible.
Myal Greene
“We’re heartbroken by this decision,” said Myal Greene, president of World Relief. “At a time when there are more refugees globally than ever in recorded history, including many persecuted on account of their faith, the United States should be doing more — not less — to offer help to those in need of refuge. Nevertheless, we’re grateful that the president’s order today still leaves room for resettlement to resume later this year, and we pray he will indeed resume resettlement as soon as possible.”
The executive order on “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program” mandates a 90-day pause on all refugee admissions beginning Jan. 27, a decision to be reviewed every 90 days as long it the door is closed.
“We’re heartbroken by this decision.”
This is a direct enactment of an element of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation playbook for a second Trump administration that Trump denied knowing anything about.
One section of Project 2025 states: “The federal government’s obligation to shift national security–essential screening and vetting resources to the forged border crisis will necessitate an indefinite curtailment of the number of USRAP refugee admissions.”
The Trump executive order also connects this action to one of the most dispute elements of the 2024 presidential campaign — the assertion by Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing cats and dogs and eating them.
The Jan. 20 order states: “Over the last four years, the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Cities and small towns alike, from Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Ohio, to Whitewater, Wisconsin, have seen significant influxes of migrants. Even major urban centers such as New York City, Chicago and Denver have sought federal aid to manage the burden of new arrivals. Some jurisdictions, like New York and Massachusetts, have even recently declared states of emergency because of increased migration.
“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees. This order suspends the USRAP until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
The order speaks again about ensuring “public safety and national security” being in conflict with refugee admissions — even though refugees admitted into the program are among the most-vetted people living in the U.S.
Nevertheless, Trump declares that “entry into the United States of refugees under the USRAP would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
In a news release, World Relief explained the current version of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program was formalized in 1980 by a law passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President Jimmy Carter,” and “allows a limited number of carefully vetted refugees who have fled a well-founded fear of persecution to rebuild their lives in the United States.”
Last year, more than 100,000 refugees were resettled to the U.S., the highest level since the mid-1990s. Of those, nearly 30,000 were Christians from the 50 countries where religious persecution watchdog Open Doors US says Christians face the most severe persecution in the world.
“No further persecuted Christians will be admitted to the United States as refugees.”
“Given today’s suspension, no further persecuted Christians will be admitted to the United States as refugees for at least the next several months, unless they are granted special exemptions or President Trump reverses course,” Greene noted.
In the first three months of fiscal year 2025, more than 27,000 refugees were admitted to the United States, and nearly 70% of them fled a threat of persecution in five countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, Syria and Venezuela.
“World Relief remains steadfast in our commitment to serve well each of those who have already been resettled — continuing to rely on the generous financial contributions, in-kind donations and volunteer hours of members of local churches and of our surrounding communities. However, we are deeply saddened by the reality that many in urgent need of protection and freedom — including close family members of those already resettled — will now be denied that opportunity for at least several months, unless this decision reconsidered,” said Aerlande Wontamo, senior vice president of U.S. programs for World Relief.
Stopping legal refugee admissions is not what the vast majority of Americans have said they want, according to Pew Research Center, which found majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents alike believe receiving refugees should be a goal of U.S. immigration policy. A 2024 Lifeway Research study also found 71% of evangelical Christians believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to receive refugees.
“Most evangelical Christians voted for President Trump in 2016, in 2020 and again in 2024,” said Matthew Soerens, World Relief’s vice president of advocacy and policy. “They did so heartened by pledges that he would secure our borders and protect Christians from persecution, but most did not anticipate that he would halt a longstanding, legal immigration program that offers refuge to those persecuted for their Christian faith. We hope and pray he will reconsider.”