Meg Redner and Michael McCabe, working at the front desk of the Refugee Dream Center in South Providence on Jan. 8 2025. / Meg Redner y Micheal McCabe, trabajando en la recepción del Refugee Dream Center en South Providence el 8 de enero de 2025.
Meg Redner and Michael McCabe, working at the front desk of the Refugee Dream Center in South Providence on Jan. 8 2025. / Meg Redner y Micheal McCabe, trabajando en la recepción del Refugee Dream Center en South Providence el 8 de enero de 2025.
Paul C. Kelly Campos/The Public’s Radio

Refugee Dream Center Loses Funding and Staff After Trump Immigration Orders

After Trump’s executive order to stop refugee entry for the next four months, the Providence-based nonprofit says it’s already lost federal funding, forcing it to lay off staff members

After Trump’s executive order to stop refugee entry for the next four months, the Providence-based nonprofit says it’s already lost federal funding, forcing it to lay off staff members

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Meg Redner and Michael McCabe, working at the front desk of the Refugee Dream Center in South Providence on Jan. 8 2025. / Meg Redner y Micheal McCabe, trabajando en la recepción del Refugee Dream Center en South Providence el 8 de enero de 2025.
Meg Redner and Michael McCabe, working at the front desk of the Refugee Dream Center in South Providence on Jan. 8 2025. / Meg Redner y Micheal McCabe, trabajando en la recepción del Refugee Dream Center en South Providence el 8 de enero de 2025.
Paul C. Kelly Campos/The Public’s Radio
Refugee Dream Center Loses Funding and Staff After Trump Immigration Orders
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Immigrants and local groups that support them are feeling the impact of President Trump’s flurry of executive actions this week. The Refugee Dream Center in Providence says it has already lost federal funding and laid off some of its staff members as a result. The non-profit helps resettle refugees and connect them with services. With the State Department’s refugee program now suspended, the group’s future looks more uncertain. Morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with the executive director of the Refugee Dream Center, Teddi Jallow.

Interview highlights

On the immediate effect of Trump’s immigration-related executive orders

Teddi Jallow:
Every refugee resettlement program is shut down. And we also received an email from our affiliates in Washington, D.C., they also sent an email saying that no more refugees are coming until further notice due to the executive orders. So all our arrivals are being canceled.

I just feel sorry for those people who were looking forward to having a second life, to have a place that they can call home, those people who are in these refugee camps for 10 years or for more. We see what happened in Ukraine, what happened in Somalia, in all these countries that are bombarded with war. So all those people are looking to have a second chance, a second place that they call home. So these families are no longer coming. So that means they are back wherever they are again in those camps, in that life, like miserable life. It’s just sad. It’s just sad at the Refugee Dream Center.

This interview was conducted by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.

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