Trump Order Halts Refugee Pathway, Cutting Total Admissions and Canceling Over 10,000 Flights

U.S. Refugee Admissions Program Priority 1 pathway for at-risk refugees. Flights for more than 10,000 refugees were canceled overnight, and over 22,000 refugees worldwide lost access to critical services including safe housing, according to the International Rescue Committee.

The order came after Trump’s inauguration for his second term in January 2025. From October 2025 through May 2026 the United States accepted 6,668 refugees, more than 99 percent of them white South Africans, government data show. During the prior administration more than 233,000 refugees were resettled through the same program, the Center for Immigration Studies reported.

Rainbow Railroad, a New York and Toronto-based organization that assists LGBTQ+ people facing persecution, published its annual report on World Refugee Day, June 20, 2026. The group received 20,215 direct requests for relocation assistance in 2025, a 51 percent increase from 2024 and the highest total in its 20-year history.

9 percent of those requests came from individuals living inside the United States; the share was 13 percent in 2023.

-based requests were from American citizens. U.S. asylum through the Priority 1 pathway.

After the order took effect, her planned move to the United States was canceled and her stay in Brazil extended to two years. U.S. was projected to me as a haven for queer people, now it feels like a grave for queer people,” she told Time.

U.S. resettlement approved in January 2025 after traveling from Jamaica to Colombia. Her flight was canceled by the executive order.