Trump's immigration policies alarm Omaha's immigrant and refugee communities, inspire help

The scene was church basement social.

People chatted in clusters around folding tables laden with party-size foil pans of homemade lasagna, shredded lettuce salad and pink sugar cookies. A chubby-cheeked infant in the arms of a grandmotherly woman worked that magnetic baby magic, drawing in an older man and woman and making their faces glow.

The setting was an Omaha shelter for migrants seeking asylum.

The time came to eat. A call arose for someone to say grace, and for someone who knew enough Spanish and English to interpret the prayer. The small clusters of people merged into one big circle as friends, family and strangers joined hands.

The Rev. Tim Koesters, whose St. Michael Lutheran Church parishioners had brought the meal, led the prayer. Kelly Keller, a member of the west Omaha church who had organized the volunteers, braved an interpretation with the help of Google Translate.

“Thank you for this time together,” Koesters prayed. “Thank you for the people gathered around these tables. And thank you for the food you have given us to share. May it be a blessing to you.”

Amen, they all said, and lined up for lasagna.

The dinner was at a shelter run by a small nonprofit called Omaha Welcomes the Stranger. The three-year-old organization, founded to help migrants who crossed the southern border fleeing from violence and persecution, regularly hosts such gatherings. Beyond the food itself, they give people from the community a chance to help and to meet migrants in person.

The gathering with St. Michael parishioners at the shelter offered a window into how Omahans, who have been known for being welcoming to immigrants and refugees, are responding to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and refugee resettlement shutdown. Migrants and the people whose job it is to help them are filled with angst. Nonprofit organizations are working to respond to the concerns. But even their everyday work of helping immigrants and refugees stay healthy and become self-sufficient members of the community are strained by freezes in previously promised federal funding and uncertainty about future support from Washington.

If funding is not restored, nonprofits may have to lay off workers and won’t be able to give people as much help integrating into the cultural and economic life of Omaha. Increased donations and other assistance from philanthropists, churches and individuals have helped to bridge the gap temporarily, leaders of nonprofit groups said. They have received many calls and emails from people offering support and asking how they can help.

President Donald Trump and his administration, seeking to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations of people in the United States illegally, have taken several steps since his Jan. 20 inauguration. The Trump administration has said it will prioritize deporting undocumented illegal immigrants with criminal records, but that any undocumented person could be arrested during enforcement actions.

The new administration cut off access to a U.S. government app, CBP One, many migrants were using to gain entry and proceed through the legal process of seeking asylum. The administration suspended the refugee system and at least temporarily froze previously approved payments to resettlement groups. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security rescinded a Biden-era policy that had limited immigration enforcement in such sensitive locations as churches, schools and hospitals.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced a plan to require people in the country illegally who do not leave to register with the federal government.

“President Trump and Secretary Noem have a clear message for those in our country illegally: leave now. If you leave now, you may have the opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American dream,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Those actions are sending waves of fear and anxiety through many of the thousands of immigrants who live in Omaha and the local organizations who work with them, according to local service providers.

“There’s just a generalized fear across all immigrant and refugee communities that the government is now looking to detain and deport people, and they’re going to do it in locations that have been typically off-limits,” said Erik Omar, executive director of the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement (CIRA) in Omaha. The nonprofit group serves immigrants and refugees with a wide range of legal and social services.

It’s affecting many groups of people in the community, including immigrants who have been in Omaha for years or even generations, with an immigration status such as temporary protected status for Afghans who helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for people brought to the U.S. as children.

Other groups have come more recently through Biden administration programs for people fleeing from danger in such specific nations as Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

“A lot of folks from those countries came here through humanitarian parole,” Omar said. “They came here though a legal program that the Biden administration opened up for getting temporary humanitarian parole status.”

And there are many people who came across the southern border through the asylum system. They crossed at a port of entry, were processed and were released with an immigration court date, or were brought through using the CBP One app that the federal government had set up to process asylum cases in a more orderly fashion.

The Trump administration, saying that the programs have been used for the unintended purpose of allowing people to stay in the U.S. indefinitely, has revoked the statuses of some groups and signaled it will not renew others when they expire. The government hasn’t taken any action on DACA.

“A lot of (the fear) is created by the administration forecasting to people that ‘we’re coming to increase enforcement and detain and deport as many people as we possibly can,’ which was all the rhetoric we heard on the campaign trail, and now you are starting to see some of this action actually take place,” Omar said.

ICE media representatives did not respond to an email seeking comment about the agency’s enforcement activities in Nebraska.

Rumors, rhetoric have many on edge

Rumors, national news and social media posts have heightened local anxiety, Omar and others said.

In Omaha and Nebraska, there has been an increase of individual arrests by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and ICE has been more visible since Trump took office, according to court records and advocates. But there have been no confirmed reports of large-scale workplace raids or other broad enforcement actions. There also have been no confirmed reports that federal agents have gone into local schools, hospitals or churches to make arrests.

School districts, hospitals and congregations have been making plans for what to do if ICE agents show up at their doors, Omar said. CIRA, the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations have been educating employers and individuals about their rights and how to exercise them, such as not allowing entry to ICE agents unless they have a warrant signed by a judge.

At OneWorld Community Health Centers, whose patients include many migrants, health care providers have noticed more people canceling appointments since the inauguration, OneWorld CEO Andrea Skolkin said. It’s been “more than a handful, but less than hundreds” of cancellations, she said, adding that other patients had filled the canceled appointments.

“So far, people are still coming and making appointments and picking up their medications,” Skolkin said. “We’re seen as a safe place, I think, as a trusted entity. ... We have heard some anecdotes from people that answer our telephones that people are afraid to go out of their house so they need to cancel their appointment, but by and large they’re still coming.”

One of the major concerns she hears is about families with mixed immigration statuses. They fear that some members of their families, such as parents, might be arrested and deported, leaving their children alone, as has happened in the past.

One of the services offered in legal clinics has been helping parents complete a form designating another trusted adult to take care of their children if they are arrested and deported.

Sarah Miller, a pediatric nurse practitioner at OneWorld, said she and other OneWorld providers have treated patients dealing with the effects of the fear and uncertainty of such situations.

“Families are worried because some of their kids are American citizens by birth, and their parents may not be, so they’re fearful of that,” Miller said. “At least a few times a week we’re seeing kids who are anxious and sad because one of their family members has been deported or is in jail.”

Federal funding uncertain for immigration groups

The federal funding issues also are disrupting nonprofit organizations’ ability to serve immigrants and refugees.

OneWorld provides comprehensive medical, behavioral and dental care and pharmacy services at its South Omaha campus and other sites. A federally qualified health center, the nonprofit OneWorld offers a sliding fee scale for uninsured patients and accepts Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance.

Its patients come from more than 70 ZIP codes. Most live in Omaha, but others live in Iowa or other parts of Nebraska. About 65% are Latino. OneWorld served just under 53,000 patients in 2024, Skolkin said.

OneWorld’s main source of funding, an annual federal grant that covers the health centers’ payroll, was held up for several days after the White House paused payments of grants and loans nationwide in late January for the stated purpose of ensuring that the recipients are adhering to Trump’s executive orders.

Some community health centers elsewhere in the nation had to shut down or at least cut staff. OneWorld was able to continue normal operations, and the spending pause was partly lifted. But concerns remain.

The new grant year began Saturday. OneWorld previously received a notice from the federal government that it would receive the grant and would be able to draw down from it for its payroll reimbursements. But it wasn’t until late February that its leaders learned they would receive funds beginning in March, but only for five months. Skolkin said OneWorld’s leaders are concerned about potential reductions in their grant and Medicaid cuts, but are cautiously optimistic, given the bipartisan support for community health centers.

“Hopefully as the continuing resolutions are worked out between the House and the Senate ... the remainder of our federal support will follow,” Skolkin said.

Meanwhile, U.S. funding for refugee resettlement has been halted, even the money that was supposed to have been disbursed under federal contracts to help refugees escaping war and famine that have already been brought to the U.S.

“We actually thought, kind of knew, that Trump would suspend the refugee program on his first day,” said Dekow Sagar, CEO of the International Council for Refugees and Immigrants in Omaha. “But no one actually foresaw the suspension of resources, or withholding of resources for clients that were already brought here. That has created a lot of panic for under-resourced organizations that were left with a significant number of new arrivals that required shelter, food and utilities before they could get a job.”

Nationally, some resettlement groups have recently scaled back services that are not subject to the overall halt in the resettlement program and have laid off or furloughed dozens of employees, including case managers who are the main point of contact for refugees, the Washington Post reported.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which also functions as a refugee resettlement agency, sued the Trump administration to recoup the nearly $25 million it says it is owed by the State Department, the Post reported.

Donors, volunteers offer help

In Omaha, officials at three resettlement agencies say they have been getting by with extra help from philanthropists and individual donors, but that is not sustainable.

Sagar, who originally came to the United States as a refugee himself before founding the nonprofit several years ago in 2018, said the situation is particularly scary for newer, minority-led organizations such as his.
“We’re reaching out to local foundations, we’re reaching out to national foundations, we’re looking for all kinds of options,” Sagar said. “But it’s a very overwhelming thing to deal with.”

The federal funding, of $1,350 per month per refugee for their first 90 days in a community, helps the organizations provide services to help the people get settled in a home and, for adults, working a job, or for children, in school.

Local resettlement agency officials say they have depleted other funds to provide that support without the promised federal reimbursement.

“We reunified a family where the father had been settled to Omaha three years ago,” said Chris Tonniges, president and CEO of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. “He was an Afghan national who had assisted the U.S. military during the war in Afghanistan.”

The man had had to leave his pregnant wife and their seven children behind, Tonniges said. They managed to get across the border and out of Afghanistan. After undergoing background and medical checks and the other vetting refugees are required to go through, they finally made it to the United States, and Omaha, on Jan. 22. They were the last arrivals that Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska placed before the refugee program suspension took place.

“We were super excited to reunite that family,” Tonniges said.

But the nonprofits also rely on federal funding to help provide services beyond the first three months, such as English instruction and workforce training, that help people gain and sustain self-sufficiency.

“The work doesn’t stop, the expense doesn’t stop, but the money stopped,” Tonniges said. “So the effect on us is sort of a squeeze because obviously we don’t want to leave our clients high and dry. Part of the reason our program exists is to get them on stable footing and on a pathway to independence.”

While almost all federal funding has stopped, the community has been “extremely supportive,” Tonniges said. Longtime donors such as churches and foundations have provided additional support and so have others.

That’s helpful, but donations will not be enough to support current levels of programming if the federal funding freeze continues, local resettlement agency officials said.

“We’re already looking at trying to find some of our staff other positions with the organization,” Tonniges said. “Unfortunately, there are going to be individuals we that we won’t be able to retain.”

At Lutheran Family Services, as at other agencies that do resettlement, many of the employees that provide direct services are former refugees or children of refugees.

Back at the dinner table ...

The people at the Omaha Welcomes the Stranger shelter are asylum seekers who came across the southern U.S. border using the CBP One app. As of last week, there were 39 people, including several children, staying at the shelter. Omaha Welcomes the Stranger was founded in 2022 by an Omaha couple, Tom and Margaret Hoarty, and three Catholic nuns: Sister Mary Kay Meagher, Sister Val Lewandowski and Sister Kathleen Erickson. Their stated mission is to “serve migrants fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries by providing safety, hospitality, hope and assistance with establishing new lives in the United States.”

As of last week, 11 families were in the shelter and 10 had moved on to rental housing in the city. The adults who have work permits are working. Several are in limbo awaiting work permit approval, but that process has been halted since the inauguration, Hoarty said.

“From my perspective, the decision by the administration to deny work permits makes no sense at all, because these are people who want to work,” Hoarty said.

They will take jobs that employers otherwise would be unable to fill, he said.
“And it’s very frustrating to see them unable to get the work permit and do those things,” Hoarty said.

The nonprofit is supported by donations and volunteers. Hoarty said churches and others in the community have been very supportive, and that more people have been offering to help since the election. They include Linda and Charlie Duckworth, who volunteered to help drive people from the shelter to appointments. They went to the lasagna dinner to meet a man they would take to a doctor’s appointment the next day.

“These people have come in dire circumstances,” said Linda Duckworth, who is also involved in another group called Mothers and Others: Justice and Mercy for Immigrants.

For many, their lives were in danger in their home countries, she said. She wants them to know that there are people in the United States who are glad they are here and want them to be safe.

Kelly Keller, the St. Michael organizer, said the church, whose members have a history of sponsoring refugee families, had no trouble recruiting people to bake lasagna and break bread with the migrants at the shelter.
“The answer was a resounding yes,” she said.

She met a 16-year-old at the shelter who had not been to school since age 8 because that’s how long it took his family to get to the United States.

“When you think about the fortitude, and the faith that it takes for people to persevere though that journey,” Keller said.

Since the dinner, fellow church members have asked her if they can do that again, and how else they could help.
“A lot of people just have that feeling of helplessness with this horrific nightmare going on in our country,” Keller said. “And they’re asking ‘what can we do?’

Story by Christopher Burbach