Refugees in Alabama are fearful of possible deportations following President Donald Trump’s immigration policy that is ramping up deportations, officials of an Huntsville-based resettlement organization said.

“They’re fearful of potential issues with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) or deportation, even though they are here with legal status in this country, with their visa statuses,” Lisa Whitehurst, who works as Global Ties Alabama’s community relationship specialist, told AL.com Thursday. “But as we’ve seen with this administration, things have been changing and evolving in that regard, so that’s something that they are fearful of.”

The refugees flee persecution from other countries legally and 3 million of them have entered the country since 1980. The U.S. Department of State funds their resettlement in the country for 90 days, but advocates say that the guarantee of that support is now shaky.

Whitehurst said the refugees are also afraid that the government would stop the 90-day support that they were promised when coming through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program towards resettling in this country.

Global Ties CEO Jacquelyn Shipe said that the action of the new administration permitting ICE to go into schools and churches is also causing constellations among the refugees.

“What’s being communicated to our refugees … when I was watching the news last night and this morning about how ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has the authority to go into churches, schools and other locations?” said CEO Jacquelyn Shipe in a recent interview with AL.com in her office. “It’s nerve-wracking.”

Global Ties began in 1965 as an outreach of the Huntsville Rotary Club to welcome international military trainees to Redstone Arsenal and connect them with the community. Over the years, it also has worked with the U.S Department of State’s program that brings international leaders to the country for about one month.

After gaining experience helping people fleeing Afghanistan in the wake of the 2021 U.S. pullout, in February 2024, Global Ties began refugee resettlement work under the U.S. Refugees Admissions Program, which the Department of State also manages and funds. This work includes helping refugees with housing, jobs, and learning English over 90 days beginning when they arrive in the country.

After helping 61 refugees and their families settle in northern Alabama — a total of 161 people — Trump signed an executive order suspending the program indefinitely pending review of its benefits to the country.

“I was shocked,” Shipe said about her reaction to the executive order. “And we already had a family on the books. We had two families for the end of January and for the first week in February, but they have been canceled.”

At the beginning of his first term in 2017, Trump suspended the refugee resettlement program for several months and resumed it later with enhanced restrictions and vetting. In 2021, former President Joe Biden revoked Trump’s order, expanded the program, and increased admissions from a low of 11,000 in 2020 during Trump’s administration to more than 100,000 in 2024, with over 600 people coming to Alabama that year, according to Refugee Processing Center data.

According to Shipe, Global Ties has been receiving at least $30,000 in yearly grants from the city of Huntsville to support its diplomacy work. However, the nonprofit has increased its staff for the refugee resettlement role, but the additional staff members may now be facing layoffs.

“So, typically I’ve had five staff members. It’s now tripled because of the refugee resettlement work,” she said. “People will have to not be at work. I will not have funding. If I don’t have families, and I don’t have funding, then they’ll have to get new jobs.”

Shipe said the refugee resettlement program in Huntsville has been successful, and she relishes the service the organization provides with ample community support. The refugees are from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Venezuela, Syria, India, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Congo, she said.

“I was talking to two of my social work graduate students who are here as part of our team,” Shipe added. “They had just come back from spending time with a couple of the refugee families. And they said that they are so fearful.”