President Donald Trump declared an indefinite pause on new refugee admissions to the U.S. on his first day in office in January. Shortly after, he froze federal funding for resettlement agencies that provide services to refugees in the U.S. The decisions are part of a broader crackdown on immigration that’s led to arrests and deportations across the country.
The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, or IRCO, provides education, health, employment and other support services to refugee and immigrant communities in Oregon.
Executive Director Lee Po Cha joins us to talk about what it’s like to do that work in the current political climate.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. President Donald Trump declared an indefinite pause on new refugee admissions to the U.S. on his very first day in office. Soon after, he froze federal funding for resettlement agencies that provide services to refugees already in the U.S. So what is it like to be doing that work now? Lee Po Cha joins us to talk about this. He’s the Executive Director of IRCO, or the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, which provides education, health, employment, and other support services to refugee and immigrant communities in Oregon. Welcome to Think Out Loud.
Lee Po Lee: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Miller: What kinds of specific programs does IRCO have?
Lee: IRCO was founded way back in the late ‘70s and originally our agency was to provide social services to support new arrivals and refugees. Way back then, it was a lot of employments and training, support services to those refugees so that we could help them become self-sufficient, contributing members of society and basically helping them to really be much more successful in integrating into their new home.
Today’s services are varying from not only refugee resettlement, but also we have early childhood, we have parenting, we have workforce and employment, and we have legal immigration services or legal services as well as senior services. We also have domestic violence services and language services, to name a few.
Miller: So your organization, and it’s gone through a couple of different incarnations over the years, but starting in the ‘70s, how long were you able to provide these services to your clients at the beginning?
Lee: Well, I tell you, as an agency that I think we follow a lot of federal policy and state policy when it comes to serving refugees. And so mainly when we look at refugee resettlement services or refugee services, these are more so federal policy. And just so that folks know what used to be the policy way back in the ‘70s and the ‘80s, the eligibility policy for refugees to receive services ‒ cash and medical assistant ‒ at that time it was like 36 months down to 24 months and down to 18 months, down to eight months and right now I think our current policies now they’re reducing it to four months.
Miller: So it went from three years of where the federal government said newly arrived refugees were eligible for these various services down to four months?
Lee: Exactly right, exactly right.
Miller: And just to be clear here, you’re not simply talking about the Trump administration’s actions over the last three quarters of a year, but you’re talking about the steady erosion of support for refugees over the course of five decades.
Lee: Exactly, historically, yes.
Miller: I’m, for you personally, and I want to hear more about what’s happening today, but what drew you to this work personally?
Lee: Well, I tell you personally, as a former refugee, my family came from the country of Laos at the end of the Vietnam War. And so as a young man at the time, what had really drawn me to this work is just the passion, the compassion toward humanity. And I started as a summer job in my very first year of college.
Miller: That was, how long ago was that?
Lee: 44 years.
Miller: You’ve been doing this for 44 years.
Lee: Exactly. In ‘81, that’s when I started.
Miller: And largely, at first, because of your own experience as a refugee yourself?
Lee: Exactly right, because I was a child of refugees and my family fled the… Well, my family fled Laos because of the fears of persecutions and basically my dad and my uncle were involved in the military and also recruited by the U.S. to CIA and secret war during the Vietnam War here.
Miller: Let’s zoom forward to the president, well, to the present and the president. As I mentioned, almost immediately when President Trump took office, he halted new refugee admissions to the U.S. How did that impact refugees that your organization was already working with or already had plans to bring to the U.S.?
Lee: Well, indeed, we were in a lot of reactive mode, and when the executive order that paused refugee resettlement, we had to stop our refugee resettlement program then. And I think ever since the pause up to now, we don’t have very many new arrival refugees and so we don’t know what may be happening at this point. We don’t have any new arrivals.
Miller: What went through your mind when you saw that the refugee process for a group of white Afrikaners took only three months?
Lee: Well, I think, certainly that is a new policy that is implemented by this new administration. I think as a former refugee, any door that is open to a group of vulnerable populations across the globe, those who are facing fears and persecutions… Yeah, I have nothing else to say. But those are good news for any group that who are being, I mean, their life is in danger and that they will be fleeing persecution or seeking for safety and a new beginning. An opportunity to rebuild and restart a new life, it’s always a good thing.
Miller: It’s worth pointing out ‒ I know that you’re not in a position maybe to to talk deeply about this and we can move on ‒ but there have been a number of concerns in this country and in South Africa that Afrikaners do not face the threat of violence that the administration has said that they do. But let’s move on.
I’m curious what kinds of conversations you’ve had with relatives or friends in Oregon who had been expecting that their loved ones would be given refugee status and would be allowed to come to the U.S., but whose arrival has now been put on hold.
Lee: Well, certainly we have many families that were waiting to be reunited with their family in the state of Oregon and because of the pause, I know that many of them are waiting obviously for that door to be reopened again and move on the process to resettle. I know that from the agency perspective, I think it is saddening to see that that whole process was not moving at the moment and indeed, I think as an agency, we have no control over the policy and who control them. And so we just end up working with our clients and supporting them in the best way that we can.
Miller: I also mentioned the administration’s freeze in federal funding for organizations like yours. What is the current status of your funding?
Lee: Well, on the refugee resettlement side, I think definitely we have been, those programs have been stopped, and our employees have been transferred to other programs or other areas of services if there’s any. Otherwise, the sad part is that we have no choice but to lay them off.
Miller: So far we’ve been talking about the hit ‒ the pause to refugee resettlement to people coming into the U.S. ‒ but you also serve people who are already here. What have you been hearing from the communities that you support, that you serve, at a time of a very drastic immigration crackdown?
Lee: The agency always, we’re trying to be supportive to not only immigrants and refugees, but we’re also serving the community at large, those who are vulnerable, and including our low income community. It doesn’t matter what race or nationality they may be, including our Caucasians, and Native and or any other groups who would be eligible for our services. And so the agencies always remain supportive of the community and indeed during this time, there’s no questions about fears and anxiety among the immigrants and refugee community because of the current policy. Whether or not they’re refugees or immigrants I think the fears and anxiety, it’s equally happening with those communities at this point. Sadly to say, I think as an agency we just continue to serve with the limited resource that we have in the best way that we can in supporting our community.
Miller: What has your message been to immigrants and refugees in Oregon in recent months?
Lee: Our messages are always that we’re committed to continue serving them with the limited resources that we have. This would mean that whether or not at the very least providing just basic information just so that they know how to access services beyond IRCO and/or networking with some other organizations or local government, for example. So our message is just really that we need to continue to work together and, as we often say, refugee, the only thing that we have left is our hopes and dreams.
But we also believe in the resilience of our community, that if you work together, we will get through this. And the other thing that I wanted to just basically say is that we also found that Oregonians are quite supportive and passionate about this community or those that were most vulnerable. And so we’re grateful for all of the compassionate and supportive folks from the state of Oregon.
Miller: I recognize the challenging position you’re in, which is it’s your job to follow state and federal policies and laws, not to advocate for them to be changed. You’re a service provider for vulnerable communities, not an advocacy organization. Is that ever frustrating at times like this?
Lee: I think when we found that we’re limited in resources and capacity, indeed, how hard it is to continue to be the resource for the community and support them in the best way that we can. And so yes, indeed, when you don’t have the resource and the capacity to support them in their time that we feel like we’re so limited also. So, yes, indeed.
Miller: Lee Po Cha, thanks very much.
Lee: Well, you’re most welcome and thank you for having me.
Miller: Lee Po Cha is the executive director of IRCO. That stands for the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.
“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.
