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Iowa City area immigration, resettlement programs worry of fallout of Trump’s immigration plans

Trump signed a slew of executive actions reforming immigration. How will they affect Iowa?
Refugee Social Services Program Manager Faroz Waziri poses for a portrait at the Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Jan. 24, 2024. Waziri is an ex-interpreter for the U.S. military and an immigrant from Afghanistan. After moving to the U.S. nine years ago, Waziri went to UNI and now works helping refugees and immigrants at the Catherine McAuley Center.
Refugee Social Services Program Manager Faroz Waziri poses for a portrait at the Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Jan. 24, 2024. Waziri is an ex-interpreter for the U.S. military and an immigrant from Afghanistan. After moving to the U.S. nine years ago, Waziri went to UNI and now works helping refugees and immigrants at the Catherine McAuley Center.
Emma Calabro

Roughly nine years ago, Faroz Waziri immigrated to the U.S. His home country, Afghanistan, was torn up by war and controlled by the Taliban.

Waziri risked his life to assist the U.S. government as an interpreter for the U.S. Special Forces, fighting a war the U.S. would remain involved in for 20 years, a war in which more than 100,000 people died.

Interpreters are targets for the Taliban, Waziri said, and with concerns for his safety and an eagerness for new, better opportunities, Waziri began the painstaking process of legal immigration into the U.S., which took him over five years.

Waziri first had to receive a recommendation for a Special Immigrant Visa, a type of visa that is only available to people who have provided valuable service or put themselves in danger while working for the U.S. government.

“I really want to see my future generation be saved,” Waziri said to the U.S. army general who interviewed him as part of the process for receiving this visa.

Waziri has tried to bring his mother to the U.S. legally for years, and now, due to President Donald Trump’s immigration overhaul, he worries she will be stuck in Afghanistan alone.

“I haven’t seen my mom for the last six years,” Waziri said. “This is how difficult it is.”

Hours after taking office, Trump signed a slew of executive actions on immigration. Among the flurry of nearly 100 executive orders were directives to seal the nation’s borders, a systematic crackdown on undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S., and a bid to cut off birthright citizenship for the children
of noncitizens.

Whether or not those orders will last is up for debate. Attorneys general from 22 states sued Trump just last week to block the bid, and a federal judge ruled to temporarily block the order.

Trump also  declared a state of national emergency at the U.S-Mexico border, which directed the Secretary of Defense to deploy additional personnel, including members of the armed forces and the National Guard.

The president also paused the U.S.’s refugee resettlement program, which prevented thousands of refugees who had been approved from entering the country.

“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said on Jan. 20 after taking his oath of office.

State lawmaker initiatives add to Trump’s massive reform of immigration policy, including a human smuggling bill recently reintroduced by Iowa Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, in the statehouse. The bill makes aiding someone who is not a U.S. citizen for benefit or to conceal them from law enforcement a criminal offense under
Iowa law.

Iowa City area experts and advocates for immigration expressed fear for immigrant communities and view Trump’s plans as a threat to the city’s vibrant culture, history of helping immigrants and refugees, and the economy.

Iowa Republican leaders stand in support of Trump’s immigration policy reforms, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who, on Jan. 17, directed Iowa’s top law enforcement officials to “fully cooperate and assist” with federal agencies to carry out deportations.

Iowa Republicans point to former President Joe Biden’s perceived failure to handle the border and emphasize their main goal is to remove undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.

Illegal border crossings soared to  record highs under Biden, averaging 2 million per year from 2021 to 2023.

Iowa Rep. Mike Vondran, R-Davenport, vice chair of the Iowa House Public Safety Committee, said the Biden administration left law enforcement without much direction, and Trump will provide a fresh opportunity to address immigration reform.

“We will take the time to dig into the details and then assess what the opportunities for improvement are,” Vondran said.

Vondran stressed documented immigrants and refugees should have no need to be concerned. Yet documented immigrants, such as Waziri, worry of the fallout of Trump’s plans and the impact it will have on their families.

Waziri now works as the Refugee Service Program Manager at the Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids. The center is a nonprofit organization that provides educational and supportive services to refugees and immigrants, adult learners, and women.

The center expects to resettle up to 375 refugees this year, according to its website.

Waziri said his position at the center helping refugees is his dream job, as he received help when he first came to the U.S., and now he can support other immigrants.

“It’s impossible,” Waziri said, referring to immigrating to the U.S. “I don’t know how I made it… I struggled.”

The barriers Waziri encountered when he first came to the U.S., such as a language barrier, economic struggles, and culture shock, were lessened by immigration and refugee services such as the Catherine McAuley Center. Leaders of such organizations in the Iowa City area worry about the fallout of Trump’s immigration policies.

Organizations focus on continuing service

Director of the Catherine McAuley Center Anne Dugger anticipates Trump’s proposals will have a significant impact on the center’s refugee and immigrant services. To counteract this, she plans to shift the center’s focus to long-term case management for those already in the area.

The center is working with several other immigrant and refugee service organizations to disseminate educational content and information. Dugger said the center is recommending immigrants keep their papers and documents proving their citizenship on them at all times.

The center is an affiliate of one of the 10 resettlement program organizations in the country, and Dugger expects a drastic decline in refugee resettlement numbers in Trump’s second term.

In his first term, Trump depleted refugee numbers to 18,000 a year — the lowest number of refugees allowed into the country since the modern refugee program was established in 1980. 

Trump slashed the refugee limit three times during his first term, resulting in a more than 80 percent decline compared to the last year of the Obama administration, during which the U.S. allowed up to 110,000 refugees to resettle in America.

“On the other end of this, in a far away country, somebody is trying to realize an American dream, and it will be taken away,” Dugger said. “That just makes us so sad.”

Dugger highlighted Iowa’s history of refugee resettlement and said it has been a pioneer as a welcoming state. In 1975, Iowa was the first state to welcome thousands of refugees fleeing the Vietnam War. The governor at the time, Robert D. Ray, established a task force to resettle the refugees who were sponsored by Iowa families, churches, and communities.

Dugger said she hopes this history is kept in mind.

The center has been through several administrations, Dugger said, and it will survive Trump’s as well.

“We live through administrations,” Dugger said. “We’ve been here 35 years. Our services aren’t stopping. They won’t stop — we’re just going to continue.”

Mazahir Salih, co-founder and interim executive director of the Immigrant Welcome Network of Johnson County and Iowa City City Council mayor pro tem, houses immigrants and refugees in her home. So far, 18 families have graduated from her house and found resettlement in Iowa, according to Salih.

The Immigration Welcome Network of Johnson County is also focused on providing educational materials for immigrants and refugees. Salih said she plans to partner with legal organizations such as Iowa Legal Aid and the University of Iowa Legal Clinic to provide legal education to immigrants and refugees.

Salih said Trump’s immigration policies, specifically his plans for mass deportations, create fear and uncertainty in Iowa City’s immigrant communities. She said families are worried about being separated, losing access to essential services, and facing discrimination.

Salih emphasized that Trump’s policies will have a broader impact on Iowa City as a whole and said they are focused on fear and punishment. She believes immigration policies should focus on fairness, inclusion, and opportunity.

“I think his policies do not just affect immigrants. They impact the whole community by disrupting the stability and contribution that immigrants bring to the city,” Salih said.

Over 12 percent of Iowa City residents in 2023 were born outside of the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Six percent of the entire state’s population in 2022 was born in a country other than the U.S., according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank and research group.

Sarah Terlouw, director of the Iowa City branch of the International Rescue Committee, or IRC, said the vibrant immigrant community in Iowa City is what makes it such a wonderful place to live. With efforts in more than 40 countries and 28 U.S. cities, the IRC aids people affected by humanitarian crises.

“It adds to the energy of the city, and it’s one of the reasons so many people feel like Iowa City is the only place they want to be,” Terlouw said.

The organization also anticipates a halt or significant slowdown in refugee or immigrant arrivals, and Terlouw pointed out that those who are unable to resettle in the U.S. remain in camps or insecure settings and are unable to access safety. The International Rescue Committee is federally funded, and Terlouw expects a massive decline in federal funding to support refugee and immigrant populations.

Terlouw said a reduction in arrivals could exacerbate existing worker shortages in Iowa and negatively impact the economy. Refugees and immigrants contribute to the workforce, put kids in school, open businesses, pay taxes, and contribute to the economy, she said, and Trump’s plans to bring numbers down will have a huge economic impact in the long term.

Economic impact on Iowa

Other experts express a similar concern, anticipating a massive economic impact in Iowa from Trump’s immigration policy plans. The Migration Policy Institute estimated there are 35,000 undocumented workers in Iowa contributing to the state’s workforce, and experts say mass deportations would  harm industries in Iowa.

RELATED: As political tensions flare on immigration, voters pin it as a top issue

Iowa’s robust agriculture sector, which is currently seeing massive losses,  will likely be severely impacted, experts say, specifically livestock production, meatpacking and processing, and manufacturing. Livestock operations and meatpacking plants rely on immigrants as a major source of labor.

Iowa has one of the highest labor participation rates in the nation, however, the rate has been on the decline with nearly 50,000 open jobs, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

Experts said labor from immigrants helps lessen this gap, as they typically take on jobs U.S. workers pass over. 

Drake University political science Professor Adrien Halliez said in terms of labor, Trump’s immigration policies will reconfigure some industries in Iowa. Halliez said the impact will be especially prominent in the agriculture sector.

Halliez said Iowa will likely see changes in the ag industry’s workforce, which could potentially lead to automation, or using technology to replace workers. Halliez said the industry will have to try and find a new way of making the agriculture sector viable without reliance on immigrants.

It is reductive and harmful to think of immigrants as a bloc, Halliez said, and the idea of having one policy enforced on all undocumented or documented immigrants in the country is not sustainable.

“There are communities of immigrants that are vital, especially in Iowa, and putting them in the same bag as the minority of people who cross the border with criminal convictions is a recipe for disaster, in my opinion,” Halliez said.

Holt argued that farmers and the agriculture businesses that rely on illegal immigration should rethink this practice because they know it is illegal.

“The fact of the matter is, a lot of people don’t want to talk about and address the reality that we’re a nation of immigrants, but there’s a difference between legal and illegal immigration,” Holt said.

Holt said he is concerned about labor trafficking.

“How many of these people are being paid a proper wage?” Holt asked. “If they’re having to live in darkness, then they’re in a position where they could be horribly taken advantage of, aren’t they? And so this is another reason why this has to be done in control.”

Peter Gerlach, University of Iowa assistant professor of international studies and executive director of the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, said a continuation of mistrust, fear, and uncertainty within immigrant communities may cause people to retreat into their homes.

“If they no longer want to be active participants in society, that will have a significant economic impact,” Gerlach said.

Gerlach said economic impacts are a place where conversations between both political parties can happen. While experts say the economic impact will be profound, Waziri maintains hope that Trump’s immigration reform will not impact legal immigration.

“My mom is still in Afghanistan,” he said. “Nobody is over there to take care of her, and she’s sick, and that’s why I’m planning to bring her here.”


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