Future uncertain for program that helped refugees resettle in Indiana

A group gathers outside the Concourse A exit in the Indianapolis International Airport the Saturday before the presidential inauguration.

Travelers roll their luggage by them as some hold signs that read ‘Welcome to America’ and ‘Welcome to Indiana.’ The group is here to meet the Afghan refugees they are sponsoring.

Teresa Towriss is one of the sponsors. She said they have never previously met the family arriving.

“We did not know them,” Towriss said. “But we have their pictures, and we know a little bit about them, and we are very excited to get to know them.”

The group's excitement builds as they eagerly look for the family amongst the arrivals spilling out into the plaza area. As soon as the family walks out they are greeted with cheers, handshakes and hugs.

Rokhsar Oria is one of the refugees. Her family traveled roughly 24 hours before arriving in Indiana. She said she never thought this day would come.

“I cannot share our happiness. That how much we are happy, because after lots of toughest time that we spent and Afghanistan and Pakistan, finally we reached our destination where we can start our new life with lots of new dreams and hopes,” Oria said.

Her family is a part of the thousands of refugees that have been able to come to the United States through the Welcome Corps private sponsorship program. But now the program’s future has become unsettled after President Donald Trump’s executive order indefinitely pausing the admittance of refugees to the U.S.

The program

Patchwork Indy is one of the many organizations that has been involved with Welcome Corps since it began in 2023.

The program, created under the Biden administration, helped increase the number of refugees permitted to the country through the help of a group of at least five U.S. residents.

Patchwork Indy director of public policy Claire Holba said the program is unique in that residents have to fund and support the family they sponsor.

“It is sponsors who are raising $2,400 per person they’re sponsoring,” Holba said “And there are also incredibly generous philanthropic organizations, foundations, private donors, who want to invest our private funds in this, right? This isn’t government funding, this is private funding.”

That includes housing and basic needs, getting kids registered in school and helping adults find employment all during the first 90 days.

Over the past year, Director of partnerships Ally Ntumba’s schedule has been packed with getting application paperwork filed and approved. He said the goal is to get more refugees like himself into Indiana.

“When I see a family come here, it is only for us really a best moment to see that what you are doing has been granted, or you have been really achieve our mission,” Ntumba said.

Similar programs exist in other countries including Canada, Australia and France.

George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin said countries like Canada that have a private sponsorship program have seen economic benefits.

“What they do is they get jobs because they’re allowed to get work permits. They contribute to the economy,” Somin said, “They’re able to support themselves and the rest of us, you know, we get the benefit of the work they do.”
 

The people

Burmese refugees Esther Hlawn Mual, John Lal Ruat and their children arrived in Indiana at the very end of December. Halawn Mual said she learned about the Welcome Corps program through a friend that had already come to the U.S. whom she talked with over social media. Halawn Mual said she started looking into the program.

“Is it the real thing, you know, the reliable thing, or not?” Halawn Mual said.

More than a year after learning about Welcome Corps, she and her family were able to start a new chapter in Indiana after living in Malaysia for 15 years.

“We still don't believe it,” Halawn Mual said. “It was like a dream come true.”

Within a few weeks of arriving, the kids were enrolled in school and Halawn Mual and Lal Ruat were looking for employment.

Van Lal Mal Sawma is one of the sponsors helping the family transition into their new home. He said he came from the same region in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and wanted to help other Christians that have been displaced to come to the U.S.

“Through this program, we can kind of bring our family and friends to the United States and to get a better life here,” La Mal Sawma said.

For sponsors like Prospere Buketi who owns a local travel agency, it was a random match with a refugee family.

“We want to give them a new opportunity to be able to have a good life, you know, like, I believe that everyone deserve a better life,” Buketi said.

The future

All the work came to a sudden halt when President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

The indefinite pause was a gut punch to Patchwork Indy. CEO Bruce Garrison said one of the most difficult things he had to do was contact families about arrivals that are now uncertain when, if ever, will happen.

“There were people who were literally already scheduled to be on flights,” Garrison said. “Sometimes there were parts of families here. Parts of families still there.”

A federal judge recently blocked the order halting refugee admissions saying it nullified Congressional will. The case continues to be argued in court.

The Trump administration has also begun to end some Temporary Protection statuses and other humanitarian parole programs. Somin said refugees that are in the country are not at risk of losing legal status currently, but the order does not allow the 100s of refugees that had already been approved to come.

“My understanding is, for people who are already in the US with refugee status that they would not lose it, but under the Trump administration’s new policy, would be virtually impossible for anybody else to gain entry by that path, at least for the moment.”

Despite the national and state political rhetoric, Garrison said Indiana had the highest number of sponsors matching with refugees than any other state in the country.

“A place may have a reputation, and this terminology doesn’t really mean much to me, but a red state or a blue state, yet you find there are individuals who in the red state, who immediately want to step into this space, who want to be helpful, who want to do what they can,” Garrison said.

For now Garrison said the organization’s work will focus on supporting refugees currently in Indiana with the hope that one day they will be able to stand in the airport again welcoming more refugees.

Contact WFYI All Things Considered newscaster and reporter Samantha Horton at shorton@wfyi.org.