The resettlement group of immigrants based in Greenwich is working on the cuts

Greenwich-Rachel Kornfeld can only use a word to describe how it has felt since the Federal Government's announcement that they cut the financing for agencies that support refugees.

“Behind every number is a human being, and that's something that can understand us so hard, and I think it is so important for people in the community that it is not just about the dollars, it's not just about financing our organization – behind every single dollar is a service for a vulnerable refugee,” said Kornfeld.

Kornfeld is Chief Executive Officer from Jewish Family Services from Greenwich, one of three new resettlement agencies in Connecticut. The other two are integrated refugee and immigrant services in New Haven and Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants in Bridgeport.

JFS offers a variety of services for refugees, including living, enrollment of children at school, English as a second language course and vocational training.

But on January 24th at 6 p.m. everything changed when Kornfeld found that the administration of President Donald Trump invested a “stop work” order for refugee settlement.

“We found out two hours after adding the stop work mandate”, which Kornfeld said, “we shouldn't offer any further services.”

“It was so shocking that we have been working in fear since then,” she added.

According to the Associated Press, the federal refugee program is a way for people who escape natural disasters, war and persecution to legally hike to the USA. It has been available for decades and religious organizations such as JFS take on most resettlement work.

In January, Kornfeld said that JFS was received for 27 people who had formal travel plans for resettlement. In the first two weeks of February, she said, the organization planned another 10 to get to the USA, but JFS could only help 19 because the rest had canceled its travel plans.

“It was actually one of the tougher days for us,” said Kornfeld. “I think everyone in the whole country has made hope that those who had actual flights and travel plans would somehow make it, even though they had closed the system.”

“In the course of one day it was one day, it was only a flash on the screen of 'Travel corned', 'Travel canceled', 'Travel canceled,' at a time,” she added. “It was an emotional day for the team to see that.”

While Trump administered the stop work in January, Kornfeld said that JFS had not completely stopped working. The organization uses private funds to continue to support the “34 people here under our care”.

JFS is now working on collecting 1 million US dollars because “what we had in reserves would not be able to maintain programming, personnel, rental support and all expenses associated with resettlement”.

She added that the fundraising campaign also consists of “preparing for continued cuts that we know from”.

Kornfeld said there was recently an action that “brings hope to supporters in the United States and vulnerable refugees all over the world” – an injunction from a federal judge in Seattle, which could finally restore federal funds.

According to AP, the US district judge Jamal Whitehead Trump's suspension of the country's refugee system blocked on February 25 and said that the president had no authority to use the right that the congress was passed and that the program set up.

The decision of Whitehead came after the individual refugee aid groups had sued the Trump administration because of the executive regulation, which suspended the relocation program and the financing of new settlement agencies. JFS is a subsidiary of the Hebrew immigration assistance, one of the organizations that was part of the lawsuit. Hias, a Jewish non -profit organization, supports refugees, displaced persons and asylum seekers.

“They lead with a good example and shed light on the traumatic consequences of executive regulations that do not recognize human life behind political decisions,” said Kornfeld.

“The recent injunction from the US Federal Jamal Whitehead is a victory in itself,” she said. “Last month we saw a painful exhibition of wealth that creates humanity at the highest level of our government. Richter Whitehead's decision is a calming memory of the fact that democracy still has a place in our country.”