Texas at the Breaking Point
The Lone Star State has long been America's leader in welcoming refugees. Now, it's being forced to turn them away.
On October 30, 2025, the administration announced a refugee admissions ceiling of just 7,500 for FY 2026 - the lowest in U.S. history. For Texas, long the nation’s leader in welcoming refugees, that number represents not only a policy failure, but a moral and economic crisis. The state that has done more than any other to rebuild lives is now being asked to turn people away.
A Legacy of Leadership in the Lone Star State
Since the 1970s, Texas has been a core pillar of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. From Houston to Abilene, Amarillo to San Antonio, the state’s communities of faith, civic institutions, and universities have created one of the most extensive resettlement networks in the country. For nearly a decade, Texas has welcomed more refugees annually than any other state: about one in ten of all arrivals nationwide.
Faith-based and nonprofit agencies including Catholic Charities, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, World Relief, YMCA International Services, the International Rescue Committee, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service have helped tens of thousands of new Texans find housing, employment, and stability. These same communities are now watching it collapse, as those same agencies struggle to survive.
A System Toppled, Overnight
When the federal government froze refugee reimbursements earlier this year, Texas’s resettlement infrastructure, the largest in the nation, was gutted almost overnight.
In Houston: Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston will be unable to resettle refugees next year, and laid off 120 employees after losing federal contracts. Interfaith Ministries will also be unable to resettle refugees next year, and cut more than 100 staff. The Alief Family YMCA closed its doors on May 30, citing “federal funding cuts tied to refugee initiatives.”
“Catholic Charities has served the community for more than eight decades. Our commitment to our mission remains strong: to serve as people of faith helping people in need achieve self-sufficiency and live with dignity.”
— Statement by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
In San Antonio: Catholic Charities of San Antonio was forced to eliminate 200 positions, over half its staff, and over 10,000 clients were affected by the freeze according to City Manager Erik Walsh. RAICES followed with 220 layoffs, and almost finishing their ability to provide immediate refugee case management programming.
“San Antonio cannot be what it is, without the migrant community.”
— Statement by the Catholic Archbishop of San Antonio Gustavo Garcia-Siller
Dallas–Fort Worth: Catholic Charities Dallas reported 63 layoffs to the Texas Workforce Commission, and both Catholic Charities of Dallas and Fort Worth will be unable to resettle refugees next year. Though World Relief in Fort Worth has persisted onwards in supporting refugees throughout 2025, they have detailed how the federal funding freeze has impacted their clients.
Amarillo: After resettling refugees in Amarillo and beyond for over fifty years, Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle announced “with a heavy heart” that they would be forced to lay off 26 employees and would be unable to resettle refugees next year.
For Texas, a ceiling of 7,500 national arrivals could mean fewer than 500 refugee arrivals statewide, down from more than 7,000 just a few years ago. That translates into more shuttered offices, lost jobs, and stranded families. As one agency leader said, “This isn’t just a funding issue; it’s the unraveling of the system itself.”
Communities Stepping Up
As federal support disappears, Texans are stepping up. Resettlement agencies and refugee service organizations are fundraising and finding creative ways to serve the refugee communities who already call Texas home. Across the state, faith groups, universities, and local volunteers are extending lone star hospitality to their new neighbors.
In Abilene, Christian universities including Abilene Christian, Hardin-Simmons, McMurry, and Cisco College host refugee students for campus tours and mentorships, while volunteers organized a World Refugee Day cleanup at Lake Kirby. In Austin, local churches donate bikes and businesses continue to hire refugee talent. In Fort Worth, retired Air Force veterans teach English at World Relief Fort Worth, saying, “We are honor-bound to help those who stood by us.” Congregations continue to collect coats, run tutoring programs, and support families from Afghanistan, the Congo, and Myanmar.
Corporate partners have joined too. In Dallas, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo employees volunteer through the International Rescue Committee’s mentorship and financial-literacy programs. In Houston, Rice University collaborates with refugee agencies on job-training and wellness initiatives. The result is a patchwork of solidarity: neighbors, employers, and churches doing what Washington no longer will.
And in San Antonio, the Global Refuge Welcome Center continues to operate as a one-stop hub for trauma-informed case management and employment support, even as its federal funding disappears.
This is Texas at its best: resilient, pragmatic, and guided by faith. But even Texan generosity cannot replace a functioning national policy.
A Bipartisan Legacy to Build On
Texas’s leadership in refugee resettlement has never been a partisan project.
In both 2019 and 2023, Representative Stan Lambert (R-Abilene) sponsored House resolutions formally recognizing World Refugee Day or Refugee Advocacy Day at the Texas State Capitol, reaffirming the state’s role as a place of refuge and renewal.
“Texans have demonstrated compassion and public spirit in welcoming refugees to the Lone Star State; in turn, those refugees have helped to strengthen the state’s economy and enrich its culture.”
— Texas House Resolution 1162 (2019)
Four years later, Lambert’s 2023 resolution expanded that legacy:
“Texas has a proud tradition of offering safe haven to those fleeing persecution and violence… Refugees resettled in Texas add to the economic and cultural richness of our state, and the individuals and organizations who have helped refugees rebuild their lives here … set a humanitarian example that is respected and admired around the world.”
— Texas House Resolution 1175 (2023)
Beyond the Texan legislature, members of the Texas congressional delegation have shown engagement on related issues of forced migration and U.S. commitments abroad. For example:
Rep Tony Gonzales (R) has a record of supporting refugee-adjacent measures, including votes in favor of the Ukraine supplemental package, demonstrating an alignment with humanitarian and ally-support policy.
Rep Gonzales and Rep Dan Crenshaw (R) co-sponsored the Afghan Adjustment Act, a mechanism to protect Afghan evacuees.
“The United States has a duty to provide safety to the innocent.”
- Rep Tony Gonzales on aid to Ukraine
Together, these signals show that for many Texas lawmakers, both at the state and federal levels, refugee and immigrant inclusion is not a sidebar issue but one tied to economic growth, moral leadership, and global credibility. That opens a pathway: This bipartisan foundation can now support structural reform - namely, a refugee admissions floor.
Recommitting to Welcome
Refugee resettlement isn’t charity, it’s infrastructure. Refugees and immigrants keep food-production, health-care, and education systems running across Texas. At meat-packing plants in Amarillo and Abilene, refugee workers sustain one of the state’s largest export industries. In Houston and Dallas, internationally trained professionals staff hospitals and nursing homes.
When resettlement collapses, employers lose workers, landlords lose tenants, and schools lose interpreters. As Catholic Charities Houston explained after its layoffs, the organization remains “committed to helping people in need achieve self-sufficiency and live with dignity,” but without federal partnership, even the most devoted agencies cannot keep pace.
A mandatory minimum refugee-admissions floor would end this boom-and-bust cycle. It would give agencies the predictability to hire and plan, allow employers to invest confidently in workforce pipelines, and ensure that local communities aren’t left scrambling every election cycle. The principle is simple: predictable policy keeps communities and economies strong.
A Path Forward for Texas
Texas’s congressional delegation is large, diverse, and uniquely positioned to model bipartisan reform rooted in the state’s values of faith, practicality, and service. Every member has a role to play in stabilizing refugee resettlement infrastructure and ensuring the state’s communities are never again forced to fundraise to keep the doors of local programs open.
It’s time for Texas’s delegation to act with moral and economic clarity.
1. Engage bipartisan leadership
Sen. John Cornyn (R): as a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cornyn has supported efforts to provide legal pathways for Afghan allies and championed emergency aid for Ukraine. His understanding of America’s global commitments make him a possible ally for codifying predictability through a refugee admissions floor: “We have a commitment to every American and Afghan ally to get them out safely,” said Cornyn during the Afghan evacuation.
→ Advocacy Target: Texas business and veterans’ coalitions can urge Cornyn to ensure that Texas’s economic leadership is matched by steady federal policy.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R): while often focused on security policy, Cruz has consistently defended the protection of persecuted religious minorities abroad, including Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria. His continued commitment to the protection of persecuted religious refugees abroad aligns with resettlement stability at home.
→ Advocacy Target: Faith leaders and churches across Texas, especially those affiliated with World Relief, Catholic Charities, and Interfaith Ministries, can encourage him to match his foreign religious freedom advocacy with domestic protection for resettled families.
2. Mobilize representatives in hard-hit districts
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R): Co-sponsor of the Afghan Adjustment Act with a strong record of supporting refugee-adjacent measures, Gonzales is a representative of San Antonio where Catholic Charities and RAICES each laid off hundreds of staff this spring.
→ Advocacy Target: Veterans, Afghan and Ukrainian evacuees, and local congregations can reach out to Gonzales to emphasize that maintaining a functioning resettlement system is the best way to keep that promise.
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D): Represents Houston, home to Catholic Charities Galveston–Houston, YMCA International Services, and Interfaith Ministries, all of whom have been hit by massive layoffs. Fletcher has publicly recognized Houston’s immigrant communities as “foundational to our economic resilience.”
→ Advocacy Target: Houston’s business community and universities can urge Fletcher to lead bipartisan efforts to stabilize funding for the refugee infrastructure that supports those very communities.
Rep. Marc Veasey (D): Represents a region anchored by World Relief Fort Worth and Catholic Charities Fort Worth, both of which face operational crises or closures. Veasey has supported Afghan and Ukrainian humanitarian pathways and stated in 2022 that “welcoming those who fled war is part of America’s moral leadership.”
→ Advocacy Target: Civic and interfaith coalitions in DFW can engage Veasey as a natural ally in advancing a federal admissions floor that keeps agencies solvent and communities stable.
3. Activate statewide allies
Rep. Stan Lambert (R): Author of both the 2019 and 2023 state-resolutions honoring the contributions of refugees to Texas, Rep. Lambert is a powerful bipartisan advocate. Abilene’s universities and churches, already welcoming refugees through the International Rescue Committee, can call on him to continue translating Texas’s moral leadership into action at the federal level.
A Unified Message:
For nearly half a century, Texas has shown the nation what real welcome looks like: a blend of compassion, self-reliance, and faith in community. Business owners, pastors, and mayors already understand that inclusion is infrastructure. The state’s federal delegation, spanning San Antonio to Abilene, Dallas to Houston, now has the chance to reflect that same truth in national policy.
Contact your members of Congress:
Ask them to:
Support legislation establishing a minimum annual refugee admissions floor.
Protect and modernize funding for Texas’s resettlement network.
Ensure that refugee and immigrant integration remain pillars of Texas’ workforce strategy.
A mandatory refugee admissions floor would protect Texas’ workforce and communities, honoring a bipartisan legacy stretching from local church basements to the Texas Capitol.
In the Lone Star State, welcome isn’t weakness: it’s strength.
Thanks for reading Save Resettlement.
Next week, Utah fights to protect resettlement in their communities.
In the meantime, we’d recommend reading this beautiful piece on how newly-arrived Afghan youth in San Antonio found the American dream in their high school wrestling team.