Convenience Big Store: Trump pauses resettlement program, leaving Houston refugees in limbo

January 28, 2025

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Noor Mahammad, founder of the Afghan Houston Islamic Society, discusses his hopes President Trump will walk back the suspended refugee program, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Houston. Mahammad and many families he represents feels the United States should honor their promise to many Afghans after years of working alongside American officials and troops in Afghanistan against the Taliban. The State Department suspended its refugee program Jan. 21, halting all refugee flights into the U.S., under direction of one of President Trump's executive orders on his first day in office.

Photo by: Jason Fochtman (Staff photographer)

Trump's pause on resettlements leaves Houston's Afghan refugees in limbo

On Monday, America stopped refugee flights as part of an executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump halting all entries through the nation's Refugee Admissions Program.

The move left hundreds — likely thousands — of Afghans bound for Houston sitting and waiting. That comes with risk for those who fled following the country's collapse in 2003 and after the Taliban took control in 2021.

Noor Mahammad is one such refugee who arrived in 2021. He estimated thousands of Afghans in Houston are still separated from family members, including wives, children, parents and siblings who were not immediately able to flee Afghanistan after the takeover.

"There are a lot of people whose families were left behind and are going through mental problems," Mahammad said in Pashto through an interpreter. "It's been more than three years that they're away from their families and it's also unclear when they're going to be reunified."

The halt has also left the larger refugee community in Houston scrambling for answers.

Read Dug Begley and Jhair Romero's look at how Houston's Afghan community is responding here. And learn how aid groups are reacting here.

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