ppromised mass deportations of immigrants when he was running for office.

He's now been in office for a little less than two months.

What are you seeing so far on the ground?

- Well, we're not necessarily seeing any mass deportations.

We are seeing a lot of fear.

We're seeing a lot of immigrants, even those who are here legally, even those who have legal status, are just fearful of "What does that mean?

What does that mean for me?"

Again, we're seeing where humanitarian parolees are having their status ended.

Temporary status for Haitians, and the Venezuelans have been stopped, or the extensions have been revoked.

We're seeing the stop work order for the refugees where the travel for refugees was stopped immediately.

So all of these changes are creating uncertainty.

So folks really don't know what it means for them individually.

We're not necessarily seeing, in Rhode Island, we're not seeing large raids.

We are seeing an ICE presence, but it's generally for an individual or folks who already had a deportation order.

We are seeing a lot of folks coming in for consultations to find out what their current status means for their future here, and trying to find out from a legal perspective what they should be doing.

- When you say your clients are coming in, and they're asking about their status, like are these people who have, whether it's a Green Card or some other, a visa, some permission to be here who are concerned that it might be taken away?

- They are, exactly.

And it's because, as I said, there's situations that are changing rapidly.

As I said, someone had temporary protected status.

They thought they were under this temporary protected status for say, for instance, two years or 18 months.

All of a sudden that's been shortened.

They don't understand what that means for them, and what relief they might have.

Can they apply for asylum still?

What does that mean for their particular situation?

I was speaking to someone who has a Green Card, they're here, a legal permanent resident.

A Green Card means you're here permanently, legally.

And they married a US citizen.

Because they married a US citizen, they thought, "Oh, I'll naturalize, I'll become a US citizen myself."

And so in doing that, they completed the paperwork, submitted the application, and for whatever reason, something was flagged, and now they have a court date, an immigration court date for a hearing on deportation.

- So even people who are doing everything correctly, these are not unauthorized immigrants, they have the paperwork that they need, they have a Green Card, and now they could face potential deportation?

- The rules are changing, and nobody knows what the rules are anymore.

Now it just feels as if people are being looked at more carefully or with more scrutiny.

- Something that the Trump administration did early on was they revoked the, you know, so-called safe spaces, schools, hospitals, churches.

These used to be places where ICE did not go to get people who they wanted to, who they had a, you know, detention order on.

So what does that mean in practical terms, that those places are no longer sort of a sanctuary for people?

- So far we haven't seen that happen.

We haven't seen ICE show up in these places.

Not to say that they won't.

- Are you seeing people who are maybe afraid to send their kids to school or afraid to go to the doctor because they know that they could be found there?

- Yes, we are.

Schools are reporting that attendance is down, and we're afraid that it's because parents are afraid to send their kids to school, the assumption being that folks are not going to the doctor or the hospitals because of that.

We're encouraging everyone to send their kids to school, to go to the doctor, go to the hospital.

Again, we're not seeing ICE showing up at these locations.

Again, I think what we're seeing is the administration creating fear by saying they're gonna do this, but they're not actually doing it.

- So it sounds like you're not seeing mass deportations yet.

You're not seeing ICE at school.

So the rhetoric that's coming from Washington is not necessarily matching what you're seeing on the ground.

- Correct.

- [Steph] On January 24th, the Trump administration issued a stop work order for federally funded refugee resettlement programs, like Dorcas, which uses the roughly $1 million a year to help refugees for their first 90 days in the country.

Rhode Island had 65 newly arrived refugees who were affected when the funding stopped.

- They were from Central America.

They were from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

They were from Afghanistan, several other countries as well.

And so they had come in the months of December and January.

One family had come as late as January 24th.

They had arrived that day.

We had picked them up from the airport.

Now, what happens in that first 90 days is that's when we provide them with all of their basic needs, their housing.

They're assigned a case manager who assists them with cultural orientation, with supporting them, enrolling them in English classes, getting children enrolled in school, all of that kind of resettlement work that happens.

By ceasing and desisting, by stopping all of the funding that goes with that, there are no longer funds for the staff, and there are no funds for the refugees themselves for their basic needs.

So there's no rent money, there's no food money, there's no money for them to support them in those first three months.

So that was what was disconcerting.

It was one thing not to have new refugees coming in, it was another thing to say, "Wait a minute.

We've promised these folks this three months' worth of assistance, and you've just stopped it without any warning, and without any reason frankly.

- [Steph] Kathy Cloutier says another $1.5 million from the federal government is frozen from a program that helps vulnerable refugees after the initial 90 days if they still need help finding work, and becoming self-sufficient.

- We haven't been paid for that work since December, since before the new administration came in.

And there's no explanation that we've received in terms of why we haven't been paid but it's putting a significant strain on us financially.

- And you're gonna have to do layoffs?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

We've already had to start some layoffs as a result of the stop work order of the reception and placement program.

With no new refugees coming in, there are parts of our services that we're not continuing, obviously.

So we've gone down from about 105 employees to about 92 right now.

So we've lost about 13 folks.

If we were to lose all of our government funding, we'd be down to about 62 employees.

- Shouldn't your funding have been unfrozen when various judges issued injunctions?

- It should have been, but it's not.

And that's the frustration, and that's frankly where my anger is coming from.

It's like, "Wait a second, this shouldn't be happening."

This is just a way of putting us out of business 'cause if you make us wait long enough, we're not gonna be able to pay our bills.

So, you know, who can wait longer, the federal government or a nonprofit organization?

- What is the effect on the immigrants and refugees who you normally help if you cannot provide those services to them?

- So what will happen is the barriers just get even more difficult, right?

It's difficult enough for a newcomer to be successful here with the supports available, with the wraparound, the English language, the interpreting, the employment supports.

If those aren't available to folks, it will take longer or it will be less... Folks will be less able to be successful here, and be able to give back.

If you look at our history, our country's been built on the backs of immigrants and refugees.

- Kathy Cloutier, thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you very much, Steph.

I appreciate you having me.

- Appreciate it.