Refugees are still coming to Washington state despite Trump's policies. But help is hard to find

In early 2025, Jabar and Adela Mahmoudi’s urgent need to get to the U.S. — and out of the refugee camp in Qatar where they were staying — was clear. Adela Mahmoudi was eight months pregnant with her first child, and the couple did not want the baby to be born in the camp.

“We were living in something like a container,” Jabar Mahmoudi said in Dari. Jawad Ramyar, who works as the family and youth advocacy manager for the New Americans Alliance for Policy and Research, translated. “And they don’t have high-quality medical assistance [in the refugee camp] for the newborn baby” — only something like an urgent care clinic, and no hospital for the refugees, he said.

Also, the Mahmoudis, who are from Afghanistan, were worried their baby would be born stateless — that neither the Qatari nor the Afghan government would grant him citizenship.

The Mahmoudis had to flee Afghanistan because Jabar had worked as a contractor for the U.S. Army, maintaining machinery. After the Taliban took over in August 2021, he and his family were no longer safe. They changed their location frequently to try to hide from the new authorities, living in four homes in three years. Finally, in late 2024, they were granted special immigrant visas — a kind of refugee visa for people who helped the U.S. military in Iraq or Afghanistan — and went to the refugee camp in Qatar to await a flight to the U.S.

When President Trump was inaugurated in late January, the U.S. government had not yet booked the Mahmoudis on a flight. And then, one of Trump’s executive orders cut off the official pathway for refugees to come to the U.S. The Mahmoudis realized it was almost impossible the government would fly them to the U.S. before their baby was born.

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But there’s another pathway for some refugees, including those who, like the Mahmoudis, have special immigrant visas, as well as some visa holders from Ukraine, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti. Like all refugees, they’ve already been extensively vetted and approved by the U.S. government. But unlike other refugees, who have to wait for the government to book their travel and connect them with a resettlement agency, these groups of refugees can buy their own plane tickets if they have the means. Thousands of people have taken that route to Washington state in recent years, and some are continuing to do so. The catch is that once they get here, there’s no guarantee the federal government will offer them any help at all.

In early February, the Mahmoudis saw that the U.S. was no longer bringing refugees into the country, and was even cancelling previously booked travel. With their baby’s due date fast approaching, they decided they couldn’t wait any longer. They borrowed money from Adela’s brother to buy their own plane tickets. They arrived at SeaTac on Feb. 19.

Jabar said he was relieved when they finally touched down.

“I fe[lt] safe and peace, and did a deep breath after all these scares that I had in my background,” he said.

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The Mahmoudis knew they risked having no help from the federal government once they arrived in Seattle. They knew they were choosing between being safe but destitute in the U.S., and having their baby in a refugee camp.

“The care team manager told us that when you arrive to the U.S., there is no resettlement agency service anymore for you,” Jabar Mahmoudi said. “You have to go find your job by your own self, pay your rent.”

When the U.S. government books travel for a refugee, they have always provided a stipend to cover rent and other basic needs for the refugee’s first three months in the country, while they get on their feet. Before Trump took office, refugees who, like the Mahmoudis, booked their own travel could request that same assistance once they arrived — and sometimes they’d get it.

But the Trump administration eliminated that program for all refugees, regardless of how they traveled here. So, since arriving, the Mahmoudis have gotten food stamps and Medicaid, but other than that, they’ve been on their own. They’re currently living with Adela’s brother, his wife, and their two kids — all of them sharing a two-bedroom apartment in Kent. Adela’s brother is working 16 hours a day, delivering food through Uber Eats, to pay the rent for both families.

“Their most urgent issue is the housing,” said Jawad Ramyar, with the New Americans Alliance. “They need some resettlement agency to rent an apartment for them. And without their help, nobody can do it.”

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Even now, refugees who traveled to Washington state on their own dime can still get some assistance from a resettlement agency, if they can find one that is taking on clients, said Sarah Peterson, the refugee coordinator at the state’s Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance. They can get help signing up for English classes and looking for jobs, for example, and they can access some state-funded programs that can help with housing and a few hundred dollars a month.

“Many resettlement agencies are still accepting walk-in cases and getting them connected to other programs,” Peterson said.

But Trump’s executive order has thrown agencies that work with refugees into disarray and forced them to lay off staff. One resettlement agency in the Seattle area, World Relief, told KUOW they are taking walk-in clients using donated funds, but they have a waiting list.

Matt Misterek, a spokesperson for Lutheran Services Northwest, told KUOW their SeaTac office has seen a handful of walk-in clients with special immigrant visas since Trump’s inauguration, and they have been able to help them all with case management, employment assistance, and enrolling in state-funded housing and cash assistance programs.

Jabar Mahmoudi said he did reach out to several resettlement agencies in the Seattle area.

“All of them told me that we have no budget to intake new clients,” he said.

The Trump administration’s lawyers have said in court that this is what the future will look like for all refugees. They’ve said that the three months of assistance was never a promise, and even if the U.S. starts accepting refugees again, they won’t receive any federal help.

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On March 23, just a month after the Mahmoudis got to the U.S., their baby arrived. They named him Omar.

Despite the hurdles they’ve faced, they said they’re grateful that they and their baby are safe.

Adela Mahmoudi said, when she got on the plane to Seattle, “I was so excited that I will feel freedom and I am going to build a new life.”

She has a degree in nursing and midwifery and wants to eventually work in health care.

As for Jabar, he’s trying to get a driver’s license and a job — maybe at a warehouse, or as a security guard.

“We are facing a lot of issues, and we will have more issues,” he said. “But I feel that if I work hard here, I can build a new life for me and my family.”

Financial assistance for all the refugees who have arrived since Trump’s inauguration is still on hold, as a lawsuit seeking to reinstate that aid makes its way through the courts.