WASHINGTON (AP) — Refugees who had been approved to come to the United States before a deadline next week suspending America’s refugee resettlement program have had their travel plans canceled by the Trump administration.
Thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution and had gone through a sometimes yearslong vetting process to start new lives in America are now stranded at various locations worldwide. That includes more than 1,600 Afghans who assisted America's war effort, as well as relatives of active-duty U.S. military personnel.
President Donald Trump paused the program this week as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration. His move had left open the possibility that refugees who had been screened to come to the U.S. and had flights booked before Monday's deadline might be able to get in under the wire.
But in an email dated Tuesday and reviewed by The Associated Press, the U.S. agency overseeing refugee processing and arrivals told staff and stakeholders that “refugee arrivals to the United States have been suspended until further notice.”
A little more than 10,000 refugees from around the world had already gone through the lengthy vetting process to come to the U.S. and had travel scheduled over the next few weeks, according to a document obtained by the AP. It was not immediately clear how many of those had been set to arrive by the upcoming deadline.
Gabriela had been preparing for the arrival of her parents, her brother and other relatives who had tickets to fly to Los Angeles from Guatemala in early February after their refugee status was approved in November. The family had to flee Guatemala because Gabriela refused to let her children be part of violent gangs and the family started getting death threats.
Once her family got their plane tickets, they sold their house and all their belongings, and she had taken out an $800 loan to buy them furniture for their new home, said Gabriela, who requested to be identified only by her first name for fear that something would happen to her parents in Guatemala.
Then on Tuesday, their flight was canceled.
“We are still in shock. We don’t know what we can do, we don’t know what will happen,” said Gabriela, who came to the U.S. through the refugee program last year. “I hope something changes, and they can come."
Among the other refugees whose flights were canceled are more than 1,600 Afghans cleared to come to the U.S. as part of a program the Biden administration set up after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Many veterans of America's longest war have tried for years to help Afghans they worked with, in addition to their families, find refuge in the U.S. Many were prepared for a suspension of the resettlement program but had hoped for special consideration for the Afghans.
“The Trump administration’s early pause of refugee flights is alarming, leaving thousands of Afghan allies in fear and uncertainty," said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition supporting Afghan resettlement efforts. "We are ready to partner to fix this and urge clear communication with impacted families. Let’s honor our promises and uphold America’s values."
There is a separate path — a special immigrant visa program — specifically for Afghans who worked directly with the U.S. government. VanDiver's group said that program, set up by Congress, did not appear to be affected.
Sen. Chris Coons, a vocal advocate for Afghan resettlements in Congress, said it was “heartbreaking” to see Afghans who were so far along in the process be turned away at the last minute.
“A pause in a program like this has huge consequences for real people who took risks to stand with us in our war in Afghanistan over 20 years,” the Delaware Democrat said.
Trump's executive order signed Monday had given the State Department a week before it began to halt all processing and travel for refugees. It appears the timing was moved up, though it was not immediately clear what prompted the change.
The State Department referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a military veteran, told the AP that the Trump administration had intentionally paused the arrival of the Afghans already cleared for resettlement, citing “questions about the vetting of these individuals.”
Critics have faulted the Biden administration’s verification and security screening of those trying to resettle in the U.S.
Trump's order, however, said the refugee program would be suspended because cities and communities had been taxed by “record levels of migration” and didn't have the ability to “absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees."
Agencies that help refugees settle and adjust to life in the U.S. and many veterans who work to evacuate Afghans say refugees are some of the most vetted and screened immigrants and sometimes undergo a yearslong wait before setting foot in America.
“Refugees go through one of the most rigorous vetting processes in the world, and many are now seeing their travel canceled just days, or even hours, before they were set to begin their new lives in the United States,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Global Refuge, one of the 10 U.S. resettlement agencies, said in a statement Wednesday.
Refugees are distinct from people who come directly to the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum. Refugees must be living outside of the U.S. to be considered for resettlement and are usually referred to the State Department by the United Nations.
While the resettlement program has historically enjoyed bipartisan support, the first Trump administration also temporarily halted it and then lowered the number of refugees who could enter each year.
Salomon reported from Miami. AP reporter Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces were withdrawing from a key Gaza corridor on Sunday, Israeli officials and Hamas said, part of Israel's commitments under a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas that is moving ahead but faces a major test over whether the sides can negotiate its planned extension.
Israel agreed as part of the truce to remove its forces from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor, a strip of land that bisects northern Gaza from the south that Israel used as a military zone during the war.
At the start of the ceasefire last month, Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross Netzarim to head to their homes in the war-battered north, sending hundreds of thousands streaming across Gaza on foot and by car. The withdrawal of forces from the area fulfills another commitment to the deal, which paused the 15-month war.
However, the sides appear to have made little progress on negotiating the deal's second phase, which is meant to extend the truce and lead to the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sending a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in talks between the sides, but the mission included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough in extending the truce. Netanyahu is also expected to convene a meeting of key Cabinet ministers this week on the second phase of the deal.
Separately on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that a 23-year-old Palestinian woman who was eight months pregnant was fatally shot by Israeli gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a broad operation.
Since it began on Jan. 19, the ceasefire deal has faced repeated obstacles and disagreements between the sides, underscoring its fragility. But it has held, raising hopes that the devastating war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed toward an end.
On Sunday, cars heaped with belongings, including water tanks and suitcases, were seen heading north through a road that crosses Netzarim. Under the deal, Israel is supposed to allow the cars to cross through uninspected, and there did not appear to be troops in the vicinity of the road.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the withdrawal showed Hamas had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands" and that it thwarted “Netanyahu’s illusion of achieving total victory.”
The Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss troop movement with the media, did not disclose how many soldiers were withdrawing. Troops currently remain along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt and a full withdrawal is expected to be negotiated in a later stage of the truce.
During the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to war-battered Gaza. The deal also stipulates that Israeli troops will pull back from populated areas of Gaza as well as the Netzarim corridor.
In the second phase, all remaining living hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.” But details beyond that are unclear and repeated stumbling blocks throughout the first phase and the deep mistrust between the sides have cast doubt on whether they can nail down the extension.
Israel has said it won’t agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it won’t hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from the territory.
Netanyahu meanwhile is under heavy pressure from his far-right political allies to resume the war after the first phase so that Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack on Israelis in their history, can be defeated. He is also facing pressure from Israelis who are eager to see more hostages return home and want to deal to continue, especially after the gaunt appearances of the three male captives freed on Saturday stunned the nation.
Complicating things further is a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to relocate the population of Gaza and take ownership of the Palestinian territory. Israel has expressed openness to the idea while Hamas, the Palestinians and the broader Arab world have rejected it outright.
The suggested plan is saddled with moral, legal and practical obstacles. But it may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic by Trump, to try to ratchet up pressure on Hamas or as an opening gambit in a bargaining process aimed at securing a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. That grand deal appeared to be rattled on Sunday as Saudi Arabia condemned remarks by Netanyahu who said Palestinians could create their state in that territory.
Saudi Arabia said his remarks “aim to divert attention from the successive crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to.”
In an interview Thursday with Israel’s Channel 14, Netanyahu said: “The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there.”
The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians according to local health authorities who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Vast parts of the territory have been obliterated in the fighting, leaving many Palestinians returning to damaged or destroyed homes.
Violence has surged in the West Bank throughout the war and has intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation in the north of the territory. The shooting of the pregnant woman, Sundus Shalabi, happened in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations against Palestinian militants in the territory. The Palestinian Health Ministry also said that Shalabi’s husband was critically wounded by the gunfire.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday the expansion of the Israeli military operation, which started in the city of Jenin several weeks ago. He said the operation was meant to prevent Iran from establishing a foothold in the occupied West Bank.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
An Israeli tank is loaded onto a transport truck near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
An Israeli tank takes a position near the border with Gaza in southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli tanks at a staging area near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers take positions near the border with Gaza in southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
An Israeli tank near the border with Gaza in southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers take positions near destroyed buildings inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
FILE - Israeli soldiers drive near the northern Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - Israeli soldiers wave to the camera from an APC as they cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov, File)
Palestinians are seen near destroyed buildings by Israeli bombardments inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)