Minnesota refugee arrivals fall to record lows, reshaping decades-old resettlement system
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For more than four decades, Minnesota has been one of the country’s leading refugee resettlement states for people fleeing war, persecution and humanitarian crises. On average, about 2,000 to 3,000 refugees arrived in the state each year over the previous 45 years.
That system has changed dramatically over the past year.
New data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services shows just 111 refugees have arrived in Minnesota so far this fiscal year — and all of them are white Afrikaners from South Africa.
The drop follows the Trump administration’s January 2025 executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. After that change, state officials projected fewer than 300 refugees would arrive in Minnesota between October 2025 and September 2026, and those projections remain unchanged.
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The arrivals Minnesota has seen since then have come through an exception process created by the administration that has prioritized Afrikaners from South Africa.
The change has forced refugee resettlement organizations across Minnesota to reconsider what their work looks like — and what the future of the system will be.
‘A sea change’ for refugee resettlement
For more than 40 years, the Minnesota Council of Churches helped newly arrived refugees settle into life in Minnesota.
That work traditionally included meeting families at the airport, finding housing, enrolling children in school, helping adults find employment and connecting families with health care and community resources.
“Traditionally the work of refugee resettlement really focused on the first 90 days, and again this is kind of pre-Trump,” Kathleen Motzenbecker, director of refugee services at the Minnesota Council of Churches, said. “That work would be as tangible as being at the airport when a refugee arrived. It would be to secure housing. It would be to secure enrolling the children in school.”
The Minnesota Council of Churches decided not to participate in the federal program resettling Afrikaners.
Under U.S. law, refugees are people fleeing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group. Motzenbecker said leaders believed the program conflicted with the legal definition of a refugee and the organization’s values.
“That was the right moral decision, if you ask me. However, it did have pretty significant financial costs for us as an organization, and we lost millions of dollars in federal funding,” she said.
Instead, the organization now focuses on helping refugees already living in Minnesota with services including immigration assistance, employment support and community resources.
Motzenbecker said the organization continues to see demand for those services.
“Immigration continues to be an extremely busy office here at the Minnesota Council of Churches,” she said.
Other organizations chose a different path
Not every refugee resettlement agency made the same decision. Arrive Ministries has resettled Afrikaners.
Ruth LePage, director of refugee services at Arrive Ministries, said the organization's decision was driven by a desire to preserve its capacity to resume refugee resettlement in the future.
“We also want to maintain our ability to welcome people, and that's a skill set. It's a niche expertise. And so to walk away from 40 years of resettlement — once that walks out the door, that's hard to rebuild,” she said.
LePage said the organization still wants the refugee admissions program expanded to include people fleeing persecution around the world.
“Our concern is that is exclusive right now to one population, and so we continue to advocate that the program would expand, would open again to be able to welcome refugees, individuals who have fled their countries of origin because of persecution on account of reasons such as their faith or political opinion or race.”
International Institute sees fewer arrivals, more uncertainty
The International Institute of Minnesota has also seen a significant reduction in refugee arrivals.
In fiscal year 2024, organization leaders said they resettled about 660 refugees, including people arriving through refugee and Special Immigrant Visa programs.
This fiscal year, the organization has helped resettle 21 people — including 13 Afghans who arrived through the Special Immigrant Visa program and about eight Afrikaners.
Michelle Eberhard, director of refugee services at the International Institute of Minnesota said those relatively small numbers still matter, both for the families arriving and for the organization's ability to support refugees already living in the community.
“Some have some family here that they're reunifying or being reunified with. And for us that was kind of a tough decision. But we look at the services we provide kind of broadly,” Eberhard said. “For us, it's important to continue to serve people who are newer to our communities as well.”
Jane Graupman, executive director, said the scale of the change is unlike anything she has seen during her nearly four decades working in refugee services.
“I think it's a marked change in what has happened historically in the history of this program, so it's a big change,” she said.
Graupman said refugee resettlement has historically included people arriving from many regions of the world.
“Refugee resettlement usually has refugees arriving from all the regions in the world, you know, where there's civil conflict. So it's a big change.”
For many refugees already living in Minnesota, one of the biggest impacts has been the disruption of family reunification.
Graupman said many families remain in limbo as they wait for relatives to join them in Minnesota.
“We have to tell families that come to us and say, ‘Is there any progress on my kids joining me here in the United States?’ and we have to say no because there isn't any progress,” she said.
She said refugee resettlement has historically been a way for families already in the United States to reunite with loved ones.
“Refugee resettlement really is a family reunification program. It's people here that are sponsoring folks to join them, to join their families.”
What happens next?
State officials say refugee service providers continue assisting people who arrived before the suspension of the refugee admissions program.
Those services include employment assistance, immigration support, English classes and help navigating changes to federal policies.
Graupman said the future of refugee resettlement remains uncertain, but she hopes the program eventually returns to welcoming refugees from around the world.
“The refugee program is a humanitarian program, and it's something that we've really held up as really extraordinary,” she said.
For organizations that have spent decades building Minnesota’s refugee resettlement network, the past year has been a turning point.
The number of new arrivals has fallen sharply. Providers say the effects of that change will continue to shape Minnesota communities for years to come.
